


We Work in the Shadows

by HufflepuffleMarauder



Series: Shadows [1]
Category: Kung Fu Panda (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, Comedy, Furious Five - Freeform, Gen, Mystery, Romantic Subplot, Shifu's A+ parenting, Swearing, They're still kung fu masters though
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:01:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 49,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24798859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HufflepuffleMarauder/pseuds/HufflepuffleMarauder
Summary: For as long as Po knew, the Jade Palace only ever had the same five employees. When he applies for a job there his curiousity gets the best of him, and finds himself uncovering the most protected secret in all of China._"You're the Furious Five." He breathed.They were shocked into silence until three cusses were uttered.
Relationships: Crane & Tigress (Kung Fu Panda), Crane & Viper, Crane/Viper (Kung Fu Panda), Furious Five - Relationship, Monkey & Mantis, Po & Tigress (Kung Fu Panda)
Series: Shadows [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1953826
Comments: 59
Kudos: 76





	1. The Jade Palace employees

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Po's normal day starts to spiral out of control

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is honestly pure wish fulfilment. I feel like this fandom had a lack of AUs in it and I just couldn't get this idea out my head.
> 
> If you don't like modern, human or spy AUs then click off. If you do then enjoy!

How the Jade Palace stood for so many years and kept such a vibrant colour was a complete mystery to everyone.

Po just knew that it made him happy.

He was considered a nerd, a geek maybe, by society’s standards. He had various social media accounts, but mostly just to keep track of the numerous blockbuster kung fu movies. Never posting anything worthwhile, simply tickets to said movies and posed, picturesque meals. While in school he was a bit of a… well, a loner. No one ever really _knew_ of his keen obsession with kung fu. (He always thanked his good luck for that) Apart from his dad of course.

His dad’s restaurant and takeaway made good business, good enough that he made Po the offer of taking recreational kung fu classes in one of the village halls. Po had refused, insisting he just liked the history and possibilities of martial arts and had no interest in doing it.

But the truth was that it was his dream to learn kung fu. The only thing stopping him was the knowledge that if he even stepped _into_ the class he’d get laughed at. He definitely wasn’t obese. But obviously overweight, something pretty rare in mainland China. His rotund stomach was filled with the snacks he sneaked to his room in the night while staying up reading countless of articles on historical kung fu figures. It wasn’t so much a sad existence, more like one where he wished he could do what he loved.

There were days he wished he lived in the times kung fu was more widely recognised. These historical figures of kung fu were respected, loved, even. They protected the villages and fought with bandits or even whole armies! The obsession ate up at him. For how deep it ran, it was a miracle no one found out while he was in school. (The nightmares of pointing fingers and taunting mouths were still his biggest fears) Though his wish was unattainable. And it was a stupid wish, really, but Po knew that he’d been born in the era of Ancient China then he probably wouldn’t be considered so weird.

But he felt the heavy weight of his phone in his back pocket as he climbed the Thousand Steps for the third time that month.

The thousand steps were probably his worst enemy. They took him almost three hours to climb the first time, and when he finally reached the Palace, the visiting hours were over. It was a horrible stroke of bad luck. Po almost crawled the way back down, cussing and mentally kicking himself all the way. Now, after so many years of climbing, he had improved greatly. It still caused his legs immense pan and ache the next morning, but was all worth it to get to stand in the glory of the Jade Palace.

The employees there must’ve thought him crazy. It was always the same five people. Po never saw anyone else working there. They were all around his age, nineteen to twenty something. He could never stop envying how _lucky_ they were to get to work in the Jade Palace! They could always be seen polishing the cabinets containing precious artifacts, at the reception desk accepting donations and booking tours they themselves held. (The last job was what he was most excited for, and he would happily clean the Palace floor to ceiling just to do that job) Po had yet to ask for a tour. It was on his bucket list and he fully intended to finish said list. But whenever one of the employees fixed him with a stare like they could see right through him he found himself frozen to the spot, a flustered, stammering mess. It made him want to cringe in embarrassment. Hopefully they wouldn’t recognise him once he got hired.

Well, if his resume could do him justice. He clutched the paper in a sweaty hand, rehearsing everything he would say to give the perfect interview. _That’s if they even bother giving me an interview,_ he thought pessimistically. It did seem very… tricky, to get hired there. For as long as he knew, (which was, the last three years) there had only ever been the same employees. Two girls, three guys. Maybe the job description just wasn’t for everyone.

As he finally reached the top of the steps, he did his usual stop and pant for a few minutes over bent legs until he regained normal breathing. With his heart beating faster than usual, he walked into the Palace purposefully with a one goal in mind.

As always, it was littered with tourists. Almost all Western or European. He never usually felt out of place among tourists, but as he marched up to the front desk he felt as if all eyes were on him.

The usual girl at the desk gave him a customer service smile. “Hello, what can I do for you?”

“I – uh, I’m looking to apply for a job here?” Po asked tentatively, holding his resume up to show her.

“Sorry, we don’t have any vacancies here.” She said curtly, crushing all hope with just a few words.

“Nothing at all? But could you – could you take a part timer?” Po persisted, he had to persist.

“No, sorry.” She repeated, and quickly started to gather her phone and leave the desk to change shifts.

“Could you at least give my resume to the boss?!” Po was getting desperate, and pushed the now pathetic-looking paper towards her. “Consider me?!”

“I’m really sorry,” She said coldly, not sounding at all as if she was sorry. “but it’s out of my hands.” She hit her hand on the desk with a sense of finality and walked away.

Po felt tears well up in his eyes. He stood there for a moment, processing the weight of her words. That was it. No job at the Palace. Scenes of working at his dad’s restaurant for the rest of his life flooded his mind. He started his dejected walk back home. It was so unfair! What monument only had five employees anyway? It was so stupid! And that girl, she could have at least said something to a boss or someone in a senior position! Why were the gods against him? Upon his walk of shame out, he stopped seeing the door that had taunted him all these years. _PRIVATE. STAFF MEMBERS ONLY._ The door was open. And the girl at the desk had just disappeared into it.

It was out of pure impulse that he pushed it open and went in after her.

He was greeted by a normal locker room. The girl was nowhere to be seen. _Where did she go?_ He turned round frantically. Was she watching him? Hiding somewhere? One of the lockers was left slightly open, the door swinging on its hinges. Curiousity lead Po to look inside.

Everything was dark. Po turned his phone light on and looked around. It was some sort of tunnel. The squeezed himself through the tiny doorway and felt the locker door shut with a bang behind him. In a panic, he tried to push it open again, but it had jammed shut. _Okay, breathe, just go through the tunnel, that girl will be here and she’ll let you out, alright?_ His inner monologue did nothing to calm the beginnings of hyperventilation echoing in the tunnel, but still, he persevered and moved on. Using the light to guide him he slowly made his way through. It went left, right and down. So far down. He imagined he must be so deep in the ground. What kind of staff room was this? Everything about this was completely bizarre. After what felt like an hour of wandering, the tunnel went up for the first time. A beam of light shone through, and Po ran to it like a moth, finally admitting to himself that the dark bothered him. Stepping out he expected to see an exit, not an empty courtyard.

The open space unnerved him, so he ran childishly to the other side where the vegetation was ripe and thick. Jumping behind a large bush, he turned his phone on silent and hoped that no one would find him. A girl stepped out into the courtyard, looking as if she came from thin air. Po almost gasped audibly, she was wearing traditional kung fu attire! Not the cheap stuff parents bought for their kid trying out the beginner’s class down the road, no, this was the real deal. But, why? She turned round and he ducked, holding his breath. But before he ducked he managed to catch a glimpse of her face.

She was the girl at the desk.

_What the hell is going on._

He couldn’t believe his eyes when she started practicing advanced kung fu moves to the air.

He couldn’t tear his eyes away. She was swift and light on her feet, despite carrying much more muscle than most other Chinese girls. How could she look so graceful while kicking the fence with a frustrated foot? For the second time that day, Po obliged his impulses and got out his phone. The video was shaky, but good quality enough for him to watch it back later despite the far distance. She was entrancing, and he wished he could get a closer to her. Even though his legs screamed at him, he changed from kneeling to crouching, careful not to make any noise, before a hand wrapped itself around his arm and yanked him round.

“What are you doing!” The old man hissed, his grip like a vice on his arm.

“I – I –“ Po was speechless, and felt himself blush all over. _Oh this looks really bad…_

“How did you get here!” He hissed again, eyes wild with venom.

“Through – through the tunnel!” Po managed to choke out.

If it were possible, the man looked even angrier. He raised a wrinkled fist and knocked the living daylights out of him.

__

Po opened his eyes blearily, and instantly wished sleep would take him again after feeling a horrible ache in his temple. He moved his hands up to rub his eyes - _Wait a second. Where am I?_ This _definitely_ wasn’t his bed. He couldn’t even remember going to bed! Feeling the material underneath him and the thin width he realised he’d been placed on a rather old sofa. _What’s going on?_ A thin blanket had been carefully placed over him, but by who? He blinked a few times and through his blurry vision he could only just make out an excuse for a kitchen. He was about to straighten up when he stopped.

There was someone standing there.

It was one of the employees from the Palace! Po rubbed his eyes, were they deceiving him? The guy, Po remembered, was the one who was always wearing a grey cap, an odd quirk since there was no sunlight in the building. But this time he was no longer wearing his cap, and had instead replaced it with a conical rice hat. _Okay, that’s not weird at all…_ He was humming softly to himself, a pair of red earphones in his ears plugged into a phone sitting in the back pocket of his jeans. Unsure of what to do, Po sat in silence, watching him idly wash numerous bowls, plates and chopsticks.

 _I need to get out of here,_ Po thought desperately. He made an attempt to slide off the sofa and towards the door. Except the sofa was absolutely _useless,_ or Po had just put on weight recently, because it started to tip forwards like a seesaw. Po squeaked and scrambled back up the cushions to avoid getting squashed. Frozen in fear and unable to breathe, he watched the guy like a hawk. And wasn’t it just his luck that the music wasn’t loud enough to drown out whatever embarrassing sound he’d just made.

The guy took out his right earphone and slowly turned round. They locked eyes and for a moment just stared at each other. Po could feel himself start to sweat profusely. The panic was enough to cause him to breathe as hard as if he’d just gone up the Thousand Steps. Hat guy, however, seemed to be unphased, as he stood and stared with at him with calm eyes.

Suddenly he started to walk towards Po, who backed up against the cushions, excuses ready on his dry tongue.

“Need a drink?” He asked, still staring intently. Did this guy _like_ to see him squirm?

Po tried to answer, but his throat was constricted, and so he stayed silent. The guy shrugged. “I’ll take that as a yes then.” He turned and took a mug he’d previously washed and filled it up at the tap. “Here, it’s not poison.” The light-hearted remark was lost on Po, who was too busy wondering why he’d tipped his hat over his eyes.

Po took a sip. Cold. His throat immediately felt less sticky. It calmed him.

The thing that _stopped_ his calming down was when the guy yelled out the doorway. “HE’S AWAKE!” It was so unexpected that Po jumped as if he’d been given an electric shock, spilling water onto the floorboards and his shoes.

Po knew this day couldn’t get any worse as a clambering variation of steps, leaps and gallops thundered across the ceiling. As they neared, Po could hear excited and hushed whispers from the mystery group. The first one to reach the doorway was the guy he’d seen polishing the walls of the Palace every Thursday, and he was wearing the biggest grin Po had ever seen.

“He’s awake!” He exclaimed, another guy looped two arms around his neck and jumped up, almost toppling him over. Po blinked for what felt like the hundredth time, they were both Palace workers!

“He’s awake!” The second guy echoed wildly, the one who usually did the tours.

“Stop it! You’ll scare him!” A female voice said, and stepped into the kitchen as if to shield the other two from view. Po’s eyes widened as he recognised her, were _all_ the employees here? “How do you feel, sweetie?” She asked him kindly, not fixing him with the intent stare the other guy had, and instead making his heart stop beating furiously.

“Yeah – yeah I’m good.” He choked out.

Hat guy rolled his eyes. “Oh so _now_ you talk.”

“Shut up Jia!” The girl glared behind her before pressing the back of her hand to Po’s forehead, who backed away instantly. She either didn’t notice his body language or ignored it, and persisted. “You’re burning up! How hard did he hit you?” She asked, like a concerned parent, despite the fact that she was probably the same age as himself.

Before Po could question who _he_ was, one last girl stepped into the kitchen.

Po felt himself go completely red. It was the girl he’d been watching in the courtyard. All the memories came flooding back, of not getting the job, following her into the staff room, then going through that crazy tunnel and getting knocked out by an old dude. His temple throbbed again, as if to remind him of the pain. He forced himself to look at the girl, out of respect. She had her arms crossed over her chest and looked annoyed. Not just annoyed, _furious._

“Fan Hai, get him an ice pack.” She instructed, still glaring at Po.

The guy who’d jumped on the back of the other guy obediently hopped off and started searching around in the freezer.

“Wu Cong, find Shifu and bring him here.” The guy who’d been jumped on, walked out the door, muttering to himself. Po could only catch bits and pieces, but it was enough to let him know that Wu Cong was not pleased with the task given to him. “Jia, lose the hat, it’s weirding him out.”

Jia spluttered, losing his cool composure for a second. “Seriously?” She turned round and fixed him with what Po hoped was a terrifying look. “ _Fine._ ” Jia took the rice hat off with a frustrated sigh and placed it carefully on the kitchen countertop.

Fan Hai emerged from the freezer with an ice pack and a wicked grin, hiding a hand behind his back. He jumped up and dropped a handful of ice down the back of Jia’s shirt with an evil laugh, who opened his mouth in a silent scream. “Ying’s always gonna get her way!” He exclaimed, still laughing even when Jia hit his stomach with a sharp elbow.

“I will _fight_ you!” He threatened, shaking the ice out of his shirt and massaging the back of his now red neck.

“Guys!” The first girl scolded, who was currently checking Po for any injuries. “Sorry about them.” She said with a fond eye roll. “Jia doesn’t get involved usually, but you’ve got to watch out for Fan and Wu Cong.”

Po nodded slowly, still trying to process the bizarre situation he was in.

The girl he’d been watching, Ying, was studying him closely. It made Po feel naked, like she could either see right through him or was mentally tearing him apart. Po wished he could melt into the cushions if it meant she’d stop staring at him. 

“Ying.” The other girl warned. “You’re scaring him.”

Ying grunted in acknowledgement and finally tore her eyes away and left the room.

The moment she left, Fan Hai dropped the friendly composure and stood above Po with a scowl. “What are your intentions?” He asked pointedly, no warmth in his voice.

“W-what?”

“Are you a pervert?”

“No! Of course not! Why would I – I would never - !”

Fan Hai held up a hand to silence him. “So you had no perverted intentions with Ying?” He asked again.

“No!”

“And what about Yu Ting?” He gestured towards the other girl, who was looking very uncomfortable witnessing their conversation. “We see you at the Palace so often, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was to spy on her.”

“ _No_!”

“Fan, you don’t need to drill him…” Yu Ting started weakly.

“Then why did you follow Ying? Watching her in the bushes no less.” Jia said, a distasteful look on his face.

“Because – because –“ Po sighed, it was too embarrassing to explain.

“Because you found them attractive?” Fan Hai prompted, a dangerous look on his face.

“I was curious and I -” Po faltered.

“You were filming her! You better have a good excuse.” He yelled, his anger seriously scaring Po.

To avoid getting knocked out again, he blurted out. “I wanted to get a job here because I love kung fu!” He exclaimed, now started to get quite frustrated at these accusations, not even caring that his secret was out for these strangers.

Fan Hai and Jia exchanged looks, disbelieving and incredulous, respectively.

“Okay then,” Fan Hai said casually, but within a blink of an eye he held Po’s chin in his hand with their noses only inches apart. Po didn’t know what he could do, but he felt the energy, the raw strength pulsing through, and gulped. “but they might as well be sisters to us, I don’t appreciate corrupt eyes on them.” His whisper held a heavy threat, and all Po could do was nod quickly. Fan Hai hummed, content in his answer, and let go of his chin as if nothing happened.

Wu Cong ran back in, and stopped at seeing Ying’s absence. He turned to Fan Hai. “Did you interrogate the perv?” He said, an equally dangerous look on his face.

“Can we _please_ stop calling him that!” Yu Ting pleaded. “He’s obviously not a bad guy, I think it was a matter of wrong place wrong time!”

Fan Hai ignored her. “It’s alright Cong, he’s safe.” He said calmly. “for now.” He added under his breath, loud enough for Po to hear.

Yu Ting threw her hands up in the air in frustration. “We’re probably never gonna see him again anyway, we could at least be welcoming for the few minutes we know him!”

Po was full of so many questions.

Jia sighed, and put his rice hat back on in resign. “What’s your name?” He asked him, looking like he was trying to force the warmth into his voice.

“Po, Po Ping.”

“I’m Jia, and – uh, I’m sorry about this whole thing,” He gestured vaguely around the kitchen. “this is probably pretty odd for you, but it will all be over soon, don’t worry.”

His words only served to cause Po even more panic. “What do you mean ‘all be over’? Are you going to kill me?”

Wu Cong let out a barking laugh, to which Yu Ting whacked him upside the head. “Of course not! Jia just means we’ll be letting you go home, that’s all.”

“But – why can’t I go home now?” Po felt like a child on his first day of school asking that question.

Jia heaved a long sigh. “It’s… complicated.”

As if stopping Po from questioning any further, Fan Hai spoke up. “Want something to eat, Po?” He asked, all previous bad blood seemingly forgotten. “It’s probably been a while since your last meal, huh.”

Po shook his head slightly. _How long was I out?_ “Um, sure.”

“We have leftover takeaway in the fridge.” Wu Cong said, opening the fridge and taking out a familiar-looking container. “I’m sure you like noodles.”

“Where did you order that from?” Po asked curiously, as Wu Cong put the noodles in the microwave and punched in a time.

“Ping’s noodle shop – wait a minute,” He stopped, processing the information. “ are you related?” He asked, suddenly excited.

Po nodded quickly. “Yes, he’s my dad.”

“Do you cook?” Fan Hai asked, starting to grin.

“Yeah, I help him out in the kitchen.” Po said, to which the four looked at each other with newfound enthusiasm.

“We order from there _all_ the time!” Yu Ting exclaimed. “I love the egg noodles!”

“Maybe we should keep him around after all.” Wu Cong said happily.

“Yeah! He can cook for us! For free!” Fan Hai chimed in.

“Don’t let Shifu hear you say that.” Jia muttered, scrolling through his phone. “Oh, look, Shifu’s too busy to talk to Po, just great.” He remarked pessimistically.

“How’d you know that?” Wu Cong asked idly, not paying attention to the phone in Jia’s hand. 

Jia gave a groan of frustration. “Ying put it on the group chat!” He waved his phone in Cong’s face rather aggressively.

Cong put his hands up in surrender. “Christ I was just asking…”

“Who pissed _you_ off?” Fan Hai remarked.

Jia gave him a glare that could kill, and walked out the kitchen, earphones back in.

Yu Ting pinched him. “OUCH! What was that for?!” Fan Hai yelped.

“You _know_ he’s upset over the flight to Malaysia next week, do you really have to agitate him any more than needed?”

“But I didn’t say anything about _planes!_ ” Fan Hai continued to argue against Yu Ting while Po listened intently.

“ _Oh my god._ ”

Everyone turned round, as Po gaped at the scene before him.

“What did he say?” Wu Cong muttered.

Po stared at them one by one. _One two three four… five._ He counted each person he’d met, each employee of the Jade Palace. _A flight to Malaysia…_ why would they be flying to Malaysia if they work at the Palace? Would the Palace close again for its monthly cleaning and organisation of artifacts? But then… why only five employees? Things were blurry, but starting to make more sense. _Ying was practicing kung fu,_ Po looked at Yu Ting carefully. _She’s petit, small and could easily pass for a boy… and so could Ying._ He glanced at the other guys. _One tall, one muscled, one of average height._ He passed the last few conversations over in his head. _It’s… complicated._ Who would use complicated to describe something that wasn’t secretive?

_Complicated._

It must be true.

“You’re the Furious Five.” He breathed.

They were shocked into silence until three cusses were uttered.

“Hell.”

“Shit.”

“Fuck.”

It was all Po could remember before Wu Cong ran forward and punched him right into unconsciousness for the second time that day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Po's not having a good time. 
> 
> For reference incase anyone was confused:  
> Ying - Tigress  
> Yu Ting - Viper  
> Jia - Crane  
> Fan Hai - Mantis  
> Wu Cong - Monkey
> 
> I used Jia and Wu Cong as those are the names I see commonly used in this fandom, and also I wrote another fic about Crane where I called him Jia. Fun fact: Yu Ting is my Chinese name, it means "beautiful precious jade" which really doesn't suit me but definitely suits Viper.
> 
> I feel like I definitely have to justify the use of a Human AU: of course they could be animals and basically exist in the world of Zootopia, BUT, in Zootopia insects, reptiles, avians (probably others, correct me if I'm wrong) don't exist. So the world is built for mammals. And for the life of me I can't imagine how a snake or a bird could use any sort of technology in the modern day, and I don't want to try and explain that. And I wanted to add a sense of realism to the fic rather than everything be fantasy.
> 
> Then the other question: Why a modern AU? Well that's so I could do a spy and secret agent fic. In the modern day with technology like CCTV most illegal things won't go unnoticed. So things that take place under the government's nose would have to be in secret, hence the spies. In contrast to how they fight in the movies, they're in ANCIENT CHINA so there was no possible way to accurately record their faces and appearances. I don't want to explain anything further to not spoil the plot, but just a basic overview of why I used this universe.
> 
> Please tell me whether you enjoyed or not! I've never written an AU fic before so constructive criticism will be useful! Next chapter will be up soon!


	2. Panic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The five employees face the consequences for their rash decisions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To remind you...
> 
> Ying - Tigress  
> Yu Ting - Viper  
> Jia - Crane  
> Wu Cong - Monkey  
> Fan Hai - Mantis
> 
> Hopefully this chapter will answer some pending questions...

Cong retracted his fist as quickly as Po collapsed, lifeless, on the sofa again.

He looked at it and back to Po. “Shit.” He repeated.

Yu covered her face with her hands in horror. “Oh my god we’re screwed.” She whispered into her fingers.

“More like _fucked!_ ” Fan added, sounding much more strained than usual.

“Oh _shit_!” Cong cried again, as if the severity of the situation had only just dawned on him. He scrambled away from Po as if he’d caught the plague. “Shifu’s gonna kill us!”

Yu made a noise in the back of her throat, looking as if she were about to hyperventilate. She grappled desperately for her forgotten phone. “We need to tell Jia!”

“No!” Fan grabbed it deftly from her trembling hands. “He’ll tell Ying who’ll tell Shifu!”

“But he’s gonna find out eventually!” Yu reached over aggressively to grab her phone back, but Fan wasn’t giving in.

Cong had collapsed onto shaking knees. “Oh no, _oh no_ what do we do?!”

“We need to hide him! Shifu can’t find out! If he does we’re _over_!” Fan gripped Yu’s phone as if it were a lifeline and backed away from her, bumping clumsily into the kitchen countertop.

“What are we hiding from Shifu?” Jia’s cold voice reverberated through the hallway, seemingly still frustrated over the previous events. “I heard something loud, I hope you guys haven’t-“ He stopped upon entering the kitchen.

His eyes wandered to Cong in distress, Fan holding Yu’s phone and Yu looking as if she were going to cry. Turning to the sofa, he frowned at the sight of Po sprawled across it with a blossoming bruise on his forehead, and his usual cool composure was gone in an instant.

“What the hell did you do?!” He hissed, looking more worried than angry. “We said we weren’t going to knock him out again!”

“He – he knows!” Yu whispered weakly. “Jia, he knows who we are!”

“He-“ Jia’s eyes widened in horror and he reached two hands up to grasp the hair under his hat as he gaped. “Oh shit.” He breathed deeply. “We’re so fucking screwed.” He muttered, turning away and pulling his hat low over his eyes as if that would make the situation disappear.

This did not help Yu’s panicking. Her hopes that Jia, as the most mature out of all of them, would be able to solve everything with a calm head had gone out the window. She slid to the floor and drew her knees to her chin, even through the complaint of the rough denim she was wearing.

Cong, it seemed, had the same crisis. “What do we do?!” He asked to no one in particular, and wrung his hands worriedly

Jia put a hand on his racing heart. “I don’t know, but we need to tell Ying.” He said, deadly serious.

“Are you crazy?” Fan spluttered. “No _way_ are we telling Ying!”

“This isn’t something we can just hide from her!” Jia retorted, his voice louder than they’d ever heard it.

“Guys be quiet!” Yu hissed, but was ignored by the others.

“But Ying will tell Shifu!” Cong blurted out, still on the floor.

“Ying has to know!”

“I have to know what?” Ying commented, from where she was leaning on the doorway with her arms crossed.

They all stared at her with equally panic-stricken faces. She frowned, confused for a moment before turning to look at Po. She muttered a tense curse under her breath and glared at her friends. “Why did you do that!” She growled.

“He knows who we are!” Yu cried.

“How!” She demanded.

“An educated guess, I think.” Jia muttered.

Ying made a noise of frustration and threw her hands in the air. “You didn’t have to knock him out! Just deny all accusations! It’s not like he had any solid evidence!” She put her face in her hands, not believing their stupidity. They had their moments, but this was definitely becoming the worst.

Everyone deflated as they realised that she was _completely_ right. Po Ping was just a random guy with a weird obsession with kung fu. If he ran down to the city and told everyone that the Furious Five were the Jade Palace employees he’d sound absolutely crazy. Who’d believe him?

Fan kicked Cong idly. “Idiot.” He muttered, and held out a hand to help him up.

“I panicked okay!” Cong argued, getting back up and ready to regain some of his dignity.

“Guys…” Yu started again.

“But this means we’ve reached the point of no return!” Ying carried on angrily. “When he wakes up we can’t just say ‘oh sorry, Cong’s fist just collided with your face there’!”

“That’s _if_ he wakes up.” Jia supplied, unhelpfully.

“Guys…”

“ _Excuse me_ but two fists to the face is not enough to kill someone.” Fan said grumpily. “God it’s so obvious I’m the only one who’s medically trained…”

“Guys!” Everyone finally turned round to look at Yu, who closed the kitchen door with a snap. “I don’t know what Shifu’s doing but with you idiots yelling he’ll hear you and then we’ll _definitely_ be in for it.” She looked thoroughly annoyed, almost enough to match Ying’s current mood.

Jia grimaced apologetically. “You’re right, sorry Yu, let’s just… sit down and… not panic.”

Cong drew up a chair at the meagre dining table. “I wasn’t panicking…” He muttered, glaring at Jia.

Everyone took a tentative seat, all eyes on the reason for their current predicament. Their minds each wandered to what was going to happen next. And truth be told, they had no idea. The possibility of the Furious Five becoming just a simple memory was horribly close. It scared them. Po Ping, even in such a short amount of time, had impacted their lives more than they could say. Neither of them wanted to say anything, except for the most talkative…

“Off topic,” Fan started, breaking their rumination and ignoring their exasperated looks. “but what are the details for our flight next week?”

Jia immediately slumped over the table, head in hands. “Don’t remind me…”

Yu patted him in reassurance while Ying got out her phone. “The flight leaves at ten in the morning-“

“ _UGH!_ ” Cong groaned loudly. “That is _so_ unfair! I’m not waking up at four again!”

“And don’t forget, it’s your turn to drive!” Fan snickered evilly and poked him like an annoying fly, enjoying his friend’s pain.

Jia ignored them. “I _hate_ flying.” He uttered, the fact well-known between them due to it being the only thing he constantly complained about.

“I know honey, but it’s only a two-hour flight.” Yu consoled gently, ignoring them also.

“Ying has _yet_ to learn how to drive!” Cong exclaimed, and glowered darkly at Ying. “I swear you’re putting it off on purpose.”

She smirked. “If it means I can still sleep in the backseat, I’m not driving.” She said smugly.

“You’re like what, eighteen?” He remarked, knowing it would rile her up.

“I’m _nineteen_ you –“ She slapped his arm half-heartedly. “-moron.”

“Wait Cong interrupted you,” Fan put an impatient hand in front of Cong’s face. “what do we need to pack and what exactly are we doing in Malaysia?”

Ying pushed her phone across the table with her signature annoyed look. “It’s all in the five emails Shifu sent us to make sure _you_ knew what you were doing.”

He raised an eyebrow at her, the subtext very clear in her speech. “Are we still going on about this?” When she nodded he rolled his eyes in a typical Jia fashion. “Look, I’m telling you it was Jia who started arguing with me in the bank-“

“Liar.” Came the muffled voice of Jia.

“He doesn’t argue anyway.” Yu frowned at Fan, putting a protective hand on Jia’s shoulder.

“He does.” Ying said simply, to Jia’s glower. “But either way, it still got us caught.”

“Okay, I _know_ you worry about these things Ying, but they only got photo of Fan running away.” Cong said loudly, taking over the conversation, to which Ying gave an exasperated sigh. “And remember that all they were examining was Fan’s arse anyway!” He laughed gleefully at the memory, slapping the table and continuing even when Fan elbowed him in the stomach.

“He’s right, that was funny.” Jia interjected again.

Yu giggled behind her hand. “Oh don’t look so annoyed about it Fan Hai, you’re always laughing at _us_! So think of it as payback!”

“Ugh, don’t bring in the full name Yu Ting.” Fan bit back, joining in the mock-teasing.

“ _Fan Hai,_ you still have to read the emails.” Yu put heavy emphasis on his name, getting back to the task at hand by sliding Ying’s phone closer to him. “Shifu will be mad if he knows you skipped out on that.”

“ _Fine_ ,” He took the phone and held it up with a grin. “someone read this out to me?”

Ying looked affronted. “Read them yourself, as you should have done in the first place.”

Fan tutted. “I’m a busy guy, Ying, I have other priorities.”

She snorted. “Trying to get laid doesn’t count.” Cong sniggered behind his hands at this remark.

Fan clutched his heart dramatically. “You hurt my soul, Ying.”

“You hurt our image, Fan Hai.” She countered almost instantly.

Jia’s head popped up. “Do you plan your comebacks Ying?” He asked cheekily.

“I’ll take that as a compliment only because I feel sorry for you.”

“Does that mean you’ll sit next to him on the plane?” Cong asked. “I don’t wanna have him whinging into my ear for two hours straight about motion sickness-“

“ _I_ will sit next to him!” Yu cut in. “And that’s by choice because you lot can be insufferable.”

“Aww thanks.” Jia smiled up at her, then smugly at the others.

Ying rolled her eyes. “Whatever happened to solidarity between –“

A loud groan came from the sofa.

“ _Ugh_ … my head…”

“He’s waking up.” Yu whispered, and everyone sat up straight, sobering quickly.

“That was fast.” Fan commented, sounding a little shocked.

Ying now started to look a little scared, something they rarely saw from her. She gulped and stared at them intently. “Right, he might have amnesia or something, okay?” She said, sounding like she was reassuring herself more than her friends. “Or maybe he won’t even remember what happened. I don’t know. I don’t know what we’re going to do. But either way – we deny _everything_.”

They nodded readily at her instruction. As absurd as it was, it was their only option.

Po clutched his head with both hands, face contorted in pain. A collective sense of guilt passed over them, the poor guy _really_ didn’t deserve what he’d got…

* * *

It was by pure luck that Po had chosen to read the news that day three years ago. The top headline grabbed his attention instantly as a notification on his phone.

MYSTERIOUS GROUP CAUGHT DURING DRUG BUST

He didn’t quite know why it spiked his curiosity the way it did. But he was suddenly wide-awake, despite having just woken up in the early hours of the morning.

The article detailed of a group of five males aged approximately late teens to early twenties. They were clad in all black. With masks and hoodies to hide their faces. The press had managed to get a few blurry photos before the mysterious group could get out. They were bad quality, but enough for everyone to go crazy over. Some people were scared, that a group of youths could be more skilled than the police, or even government-hired investigators. But Po knew they were just being ignorant, as far as anyone was aware, this group had dealt with a huge illegal drug smuggling system in the blink of an eye. And even managed to get away with it.

Another little tidbit the article contained was the fact that instead of using weapons, they used the ancient art of kung fu to fight their way out. That sealed the deal for Po. Kung fu used as fighting was such an old concept, one that was ingrained in history but could never carry over to the modern day. And to know that they used it for good was reassuring to the rich history and beliefs. Plus, hiding their faces was seriously cool.

It sky-rocketed them to his height of interest.

And apparently, the press too.

The ten blurry, flash-lighted photos were all over the papers and social media. The countless articles were twisted and distorted into almost entirely different stories. One fake article Po found was a conspiracy theory that the group consisted of five child celebrities who were after Hollywood and had hatched an extensive plan to take it down one by one. That got a good laugh out of him. As if the celebrities named in the article would learn kung fu. Although each story got wilder than the last, everyone eventually seemed to agree on a name for them.

The Furious Five.

Dubbed by a random internet blogger after it leaked out that one of their members was reportedly furious at the cameras for taking photos of them. He didn’t lash out too violently, but caused injuries bad enough for hospitalisation... or just some bruising. Well, that depended on which click-bait title Po chose to believe.

After those fateful few weeks where the internet was full of conspiracy theories about the Furious Five, no one saw them for a while. Hungry journalists were vying for another record-breaking article to write, and it was only recently that they were spotted again during a bank heist. One photo was timely snapped, but only showed one of the Five running away in a hurry. Despite it being absolutely useless information, the public still ate it up. Cue numerous YouTubers creating ten-minute videos “exposing” the secrets of the Furious Five and weirdly obsessive Tumblr blogs dedicated to conspiracy theories about them.

Though that was a bit rich coming from Po.

Too many times to count, his dad had burst into his room without warning, leaving Po to snap the lid of his laptop shut in panic. The fifteen tabs he had open on kung fu history and the mystery of the Furious Five was too embarrassing to expose. His simple interest now bordered on stalkerish, and he prefer it be kept secret. He was an adult now (even if it really didn’t feel like it) and instead of going off to university like all his schoolmates did, he stayed behind in the city and worked in the noodle shop. There wasn’t much else he could do anyway, school wasn’t exactly his thing, and the only talent he’d found in himself was cooking, hence assistant manager of Ping’s noodle shop went to him.

So yes, he was a bit of a loser, as far as society was concerned. Plans of going to culinary school were pushed back in favour of living with his dad for a little longer and “figuring out exactly what he wanted to do”. The last part was a bit of a lie, and as he came close to his twentieth he realised that he needed to _actually_ start figuring out what he was going to do.

Consequently, he found himself looking towards the Jade Palace. Aside from food science, history was his other strong subject in school. He supposed the high grade he got in his final exam would help him out in the job interview. The job itself… well, Po didn’t really know where it would get him. He just knew it would be another distraction from the looming closeness of needing to move on to higher education.

A very small part of him wished he could be like the Furious Five. For all he knew, they could just be normal young adults secretly making a difference. But even then, they had everything figured out. Everything was going to plan. Unlike Po’s spiralling life. So he found comfort in the wild stories and random photos of them in the paper. Real or not, it helped him escape from reality for a while.

But in the last month or so, it seemed that these youths had disappeared into obscurity. Completely and utterly vanished. Po was slow to admit that this saddened him. He almost wished that they could get caught again, and those Five figures could appear all over social media once more. One tall, one short, one muscular, one of average height, one furious. His slightly embarrassing knowledge on what little of their appearances he could get would never come in handy. It was useless information. China was huge, what were the chances that five young men matching in body type were just walking the streets around him.

The information was useless. Until Po really needed it…

* * *

Po opened his eyes to a horrible yet _very_ familiar throbbing pain in his head. He grunted, and shifted himself up, finding a tired ache in his limbs to add to his head problem. Managing to wriggle into a sitting position, he rubbed his eyes roughly, trying to remember how he got himself into such a situation.

_“It’s… complicated.”_

_“Sorry, we don’t have any vacancies here.”_

_“You’re the Furious Five.”_

Po turned his head achingly slow and stared at the five people he’d obsessed so much over. Their faces were passive, and unreadable. They were sitting around the antique table he’d spotted in the corner the last time he was conscious. It was almost like they were having some sort of bleak meeting. Their backs were straight and rigid, and all heads were turned towards him. His eyes passed over each face, even though the punch he’d taken was pretty hard, he could still remember their names. (How could he? These were the names of his idols!) Their less than inviting tension didn’t deter Po from blurting out the first thing on his mind.

“You’re the Furious Five!”

Fan Hai muttered unintelligible swear words, Ying face-palmed, Jia’s jaw dropped to the table, Yu Ting winced and Wu Cong raised his fist again.

“Don’t you _dare_!” Yu Ting growled, smacking his hand down. “We are _not_ doing that again!”

Po couldn’t care less about their poor reactions, and didn’t even flinch at Wu Cong. “I can’t believe it!” He gasped, a wide grin taking place even though his head complained. “This is _crazy_!”

Jia laughed nervously. “Well, uh-“

“I mean you guys are _awesome_!” He carried on, he was sitting with his idols! What else could he do apart from tell them how he felt? “I almost thought you weren’t actually _real_ because no one knows who you are!”

“Well, the truth is-“ Ying started, seeming like she was trying to dispel his excitement.

“The public is _crazy_ over you –!”

“NO!” Yu Ting shouted, turning all eyes on her. She stumbled over her words before making a coherent phrase. “They’re – they’re crazy over the Furious Five!”

“And as you said, no one knows who they are!” Fan Hai tailed along quickly.

Ying nodded rapidly. “Yeah, identities are hidden and all that.”

“We only know those wild conspiracy theories anyway.” Jia waved a hand, as if to waft away Po’s memory of the previous events.

Wu Cong made a chuckle that sounded very forced. “Funny that you think _we’re_ the Furious Five! They’re all guys anyway…”

The others nodded in agreement. “You must have hit your head pretty hard to think all that.” Yu Ting said with a grimace.

Po blinked at them. Did they seriously think he was this stupid? What did that say about how he came off to people? He didn’t want to think about that…

He crossed his arms over his chest trying to make himself look at annoyed as possible (a hard task considering all he wanted to do was jump up and down with delight). “I know you’re lying.”

“Of course we’re not!” Yu Ting insisted tensely, not-so-subtly gripping the table.

“She’s right, why would we lie when the Furious Five are so – err – cool.” Jia’s pathetic finish only did more to confirm Po’s belief.

“And they could be literally anyone in China.” Wu Cong said casually. “So again, we’re not the Furious Five.”

Po frowned at them. “Yes you are. You punched me in the face when I first pointed it out.” He said accusingly to Wu Cong.

He rubbed the back of his neck guiltily. “I – uh – panicked.”

“ _And_ I saw you doing kung fu.” Po pointed to Ying, who drew a sharp breath. “So don’t deny it.”

Fan Hai opened his mouth but Wu Cong put a warning hand on his arm to silence him.

“And by the way, it was literally the best kung fu I’ve ever seen!” Po gushed, quickly dropping the angry façade. “So you’re _obviously_ the Furious Five!”

Despite the high praise, Ying deflated, and turned to the others. “The last resort… is no longer a last resort.” She sounded completely resigned, defeated.

 _This_ was their last resort? Po was completely baffled, maybe the Furious Five weren’t as slick as he thought they were. Surely they had other backup plans if an obsessed fan found out who they were.

“It can’t be that bad Ying.” Yu Ting started, trying weakly to dissipate the apparent severity of Po’s revelation.

“Yu, he remembers _everything_.” Ying sighed deeply in resignation and put her elbows on the table, head resting atop her hands. “Let’s just enjoy our last few hours here.”

Her pessimism was almost infectious.

Almost.

“Wait, what? What do you mean last hours?” Po questioned instantly, sobering up a little but still not enough to match the mood of the room. She was acting as if it was the end of the world. Was this surely that serious?

Yu Ting gave him a sad smile. “You know now, so that means our secret is out.” Po stared at her, this didn’t make any sense. Nothing was making any sense.

“But – but it’s not like I’ll tell anyone!” He insisted weakly, not knowing much else to say.

Fan Hai sighed and leaned his head on Wu Cong’s shoulder tiredly. “We can’t guarantee that.”

“There’s no one to tell anyway! Who’s gonna believe _me_?” He pointed to himself self-deprecatingly. And it was the truth. If he went running down to the city and yelled out to the streets that the Furious Five were employees in a _museum_ then everyone would think him deranged.

Jia grimaced. “Honestly, your fate is up to Master Shifu.” He created a shadow over his face with that odd rice hat and leaned back in his chair. “If it was up to us, we’d probably let you go if you prove trustworthy, or let you _in_ if you prove useful.”

_Did he just say…?_

Yu Ting nodded. “That’s right, we needed someone else anyway.”

It was like a dream come true. _The_ Furious Five, his idols, were telling him that he could join them! This would change everything! His brain went into overdrive and in zoomed a mental image of him doing kung fu in that famous black attire and mask. The dream was so close, so close to becoming real. If he could, he’d grasp it and never let it go.

His mouth worked quicker than his mind and he couldn’t help verbalising his thought process. “So that means -!”

“ _Only_ if Master Shifu says you can stay.” Ying said sternly. “And that man has no mercy.” She added as an afterthought.

Yu Ting snorted. “Way to kill the mood Ying…”

“Isn’t that her job anyway?” Fan Hai muttered.

“Wait wait wait,” Po clutched his head again and groaned as the world started swimming around him. Everything was so confusing and his head hurt _so much._ The pulsing behind his eyes was getting on his nerves.

“Sorry about that.” Wu Cong winced, and jumped up with the agility only a careful practitioner of kung fu would have. “I’ll go get you another ice pack.”

Po’s gaze followed him curiously as he jogged round to the freezer, still amazed that such a simple task could be done with such ease simply because he was kung fu trained. “I have so many questions. So could you guys just – slow down?”

“Shifu’s busy anyway, so we’ve got time.” Wu Cong smiled warmly at him and handed him the ice pack. “Ask away.”

Po took a deep breath, readying himself for possibly the most monumental event of his life. “First, what _exactly_ do you do?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They seem a bit ooc in this chapter only because when people panic, they're completely not themselves. And remember, they're younger than in the films, hence their initial mistake at knocking Po out in the first chapter. 
> 
> The only bit of dramatic irony/fanservice I'll do in this fic is probably just Crane hating planes haha. I don't plan on putting a load of pop culture or animal references in because this could so easily turn into a bad story. 
> 
> Also, nothing has been fact-checked. It sounds lazy but I'm writing this just for my own pleasure (because I know this won't appeal to many readers) and I honestly don't feel like having everything completely accurate. 
> 
> This fic will probably get updated once a fortnight or once every three weeks. It's last on my list of priorities due to it being so niche and I also have a lot of other WIPs to attend to :) 
> 
> That being said, thank you for the kudos :)


	3. Storytime is hard to do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Furious Five tell Po about the first time they got caught and the storytelling gets a bit out of hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ying - Tigress  
> Yu Ting - Viper  
> Jia - Crane  
> Wu Cong - Monkey  
> Fan Hai - Mantis
> 
> A small tip: pay attention very closely to this chapter, otherwise things might become confusing.

“We work in the shadows.” Ying said simply. “We tie together all the little things the government can’t get done.”

“And sometimes the things they _won’t_ get done.” Wu Cong added. “Like the drug bust I assume you read on the news.”

Po lit up at the mention of the infamous event that projected them into his life three years ago. “Of _course_ I read that on the news! It was everywhere! You were even trending on twitter!” Po knew his face was probably split into the widest grin he’d ever had.

Fan Hai gestured to Po proudly. “A man of culture I see!” He proclaimed, poking Jia in an undetectable inside joke.

Jia gave him a pointed look. “I still don’t like twitter. Its only purpose these days is to dig up decade-old racist tweets from C-list celebrities.”

Yu Ting turned to Po boredly. “And here you have the pessimist of our group.” Though her voice still held an incredible amount of fondness, making Po question again how close they all were.

“Some tweets are pretty funny though.” Ying added, to Jia’s disappointment.

He patted her arm sadly. “Thing one and thing two, A.K.A, Cong and Fan,” He side-eyed the aforementioned. “have been a terrible influence on you.”

Cong spluttered, outraged. “We _are_ a good influence though!” He protested, reaching over the table and taking Ying’s other arm protectively. “If it weren’t for us then she wouldn’t know the ways of the internet!”

“Okay you guys are losing me,” Po said quickly trying to get them back on topic. “you were talking about the drug bust?”

“Oh yeah, the drug bust.” Cong said as if remembering a lost memory. “Well, that was a _huge_ operation, and the government were just letting it slide.”

“It was _annoying,_ ” Yu Ting said. “they definitely knew about it because the moment CCTV caught us there were suddenly all these officers and journalists!” She closed her eyes as if meditating, swallowing her frustration.

“Ugh, that was awful,” Jia muttered. “if they hadn’t got there then we probably wouldn’t have _this_ problem on our hands.”

The faces around the room slowly morphed from casual discomfort to shock to wincing at the scandalous statement.

“Uh, hello? Still here you know.” Po grumbled, sounding a slightly more annoyed than what was intended.

“Ah, sorry.” Jia stuttered uncomfortably. “Didn’t mean to – to offend – I was just saying that… well obviously this _is_ a problem right now but – I didn’t mean _you_ were the problem – I mean I guess it depends on how you view this – uh… you know what I’ll stop talking.” He finished quickly pulling his hat over his now blushing face, and clamping his mouth shut.

Yu Ting hid a badly disguised laugh behind a cough while Ying openly sniggered at him. “Bro you’re actually useless…” Wu Cong covered his face with his hands like an annoyed parent.

Fan Hai snorted. “And everyone says _I_ can’t keep my mouth shut.” He remarked.

The inhabitants of the table sighed.

“But me aside,” Po started again, desperate to hear the story. “how did you guys get caught? Can you tell me that?”

“Oh, well _that_ … that’s a long story…” Fan Hai grimaced, and the others hummed in agreement.

“It all started with me,” Wu Cong said loudly, shushing all other competitors. “ _I_ was watching everything…”

* * *

It was a stroke of luck or perhaps a rookie mistake that the door was left unlocked. Cong cracked it open and took a peek. Almost instantly, one of the guards aimed a weak punch to his face that would have caused minor bruising at worst. He refrained the urge to laugh and ducked to avoid it. As the guard fumbled, he dove onto the floor and rolled through his open legs, clutching his bag close to him.

“Hey kid! Get the fuck out!” Another one yelled, getting up from where they’d apparently been playing a game of cards.

Cong ignored him and gave the room a rapid once-over, deciding where he could jump and get to higher ground while kicking the first guard face-through the open door. The desk space below the TV screens was cluttered, but not bad enough that he couldn’t quickly kick all the rubbish out the way. So he made that his call, and scrambled. The other two guards seemed to be just as useless as the first, as when he climbed onto the desk and readied himself into a kung fu stance, they both grappled round their weapon-filled belts. _Are there no morals here?_ Before he had two guns aimed to his head, Cong decided he’d just have to take them out quickly, meaning no fun fighting. _Sad times._ Sighing, he jumped into a split-kick, hitting their heads deftly and knocking them out.

“Bullseye.” He muttered, when two satisfying sounds of bodies hitting the floor came to his ears.

He turned round and examined what CCTV provided him. The TV screens weren’t exactly of high quality. A grey and white gritty scene of the active warehouse was not to be desired. There were quite a few more cameras than Cong had previously thought, and it took a lot of squinting and concentration to find where his friends were. Fan was in the screen on the far right. He looked like he was holding a fairly awkward conversation with a couple of other guards. Cong could have laughed at him, he was always the one made to go undercover, despite finding it boring as hell. Ying was on the bottom row, and seemed to be trying to pry open a wooden crate. _Good idea,_ he thought, at least one of them was actively trying to find the drugs. Jia was nowhere to be seen, maybe he was hiding behind one of the many racks. Yu was the only one who looked to be in need of assistance, but Cong couldn’t resist teasing her first.

He raised his wrist and talked into his watch. “Hey Yu, any luck behind those barrels?” He sniggered, watching her glare through her mask at the camera on the screen.

“ _Shut up and help me find a vantage point_.” She whispered.

He allowed himself a laugh before maturing for her sake. “Alright, alright,” He said quickly, and moved the camera, scanning the area. Things were not looking good. Guards were _everywhere._

“I can’t imagine why, but there are _loads_ of guards around you, too many for just you to take on, I’d say go stealth mode and wedge yourself between those two shipping containers on your right, it’s small, but you’ll fit.”

She was lightning fast, and no one spotted her running the distance to the containers. She squeezed herself in the tiny gap and whispered into her watch again. “ _Now what? If they catch me then I’m done because I can hardly move._ ”

“Okay, um…” Cong glanced round at the other screens.

This CCTV system was seriously confusing. None of the screens were ordered in a way that geographically made sense, no wonder the previous guards in here never saw them sneak in. He glanced around the room and found a confusing but useful sort of guide to the camera system. It was helpful enough that he moved the view of one of the cameras around to scan the room he knew someone was in.

Finally finding a solution, he gave Yu an answer. “Jia’s pretty close, I’ll send him over.”

He changed the radio on his watch. “Hey Jia, buddy, on your right there’s a line of small crates, get behind them and crawl until-“

“ _Wait why?”_ Jia interrupted. “ _I’m trying to find the drugs here.”_

Cong gave him a long, loud, drawn-out sigh and said what he knew would make him move. “Yu needs help, she’s in the next room over.”

* * *

Wu Cong stopped his storytelling. “In hindsight what I said was a little…”

“Misleading?” Jia suggested, crossing his arms over with annoyance.

“I would say stupid but then again, _you_ also didn’t make a very smart move afterwards.” Fan Hai commented, to which Jia glared at him.

Po merely blinked at their exchange. The story was already slightly confusing, as it was painfully obvious he was the first person to hear a detailed account of this. (But this did not stop the fact that on the inside he was absolutely freaking out)

“But everything turned out alright in the end, eh?” Wu Cong grinned optimistically.

“That’s pretty debatable, considering what happened.” Ying remarked, and Po had to scratch his head at even _more_ secretive jokes.

“No Ying, he doesn’t mean _that_.” Yu Ting said pointedly, shutting her down quickly with a hand Po was slightly grateful for.

Fan Hai opened his mouth. “Well, what _I_ think happened next was-“

“Fan Hai! This isn’t about you!” Yu Ting interjected, giving him a scathing look. “If anything, it’s Jia’s turn to tell.” She turned to Jia expectantly.

He smiled at her gratefully. “Alright Po, here’s _my_ side of the story…”

* * *

“ _Yu needs help, she’s in the next room over_.”

Jia shot up, instantly alert at Cong’s statement. In his quick movement, he’d been clumsy enough to knock a cardboard box holding who knows what onto the floor. He watched with bated breath the as other, neatly stacked boxes teetered on the edge of the storage rack, finally wincing as a domino of them cascaded painfully down. And why oh why was this warehouse so prone to amplifying noises? The loss of boxes and the loud tumble exposed his hiding place behind the storage racks, and suddenly all eyes were on him.

“It’s one of those kids!” Came a shout, and Jia froze. “Get him!”

 _Oh shit._ Jia ran out into the open space, though it meant he’d have nothing to cover him or use as a shield, he didn’t want to be trapped behind those storage racks. On the inside, he felt a few butterflies at what Shifu’s reaction would be to his… openness. They’d managed to be discreet up until then, sneaking past the hundreds of guards (Jia questioned the sheer amount, did they really need that many?) and separating into different compartments of the warehouse to find the drugs. In hindsight, that was a bad idea. So far, no one actually found anything, and the only progress they’d made was Cong infiltrating CCTV.

Guards were coming for him from all directions. They weren’t exactly hard to take on. It seemed as though their training in hand-to-hand combat was severely lacking. Jia’s kung fu style wasn’t the most powerful on its own, the majority of moves being defensive, but due to the unorthodox punches aimed his way he was able to use his defence as offense. The first two guards came ready with weak fists, and he used a fan kick to easily propel the one closest to him into the other guard’s head, simultaneously injuring the guard’s arm judging by the _crack_ he felt. Another carried a taser, and shot it out, aiming for his heart, Jia realised later. Jia dived out of the way and it hit the guard behind him, completely clueless to what was bound to happen. He stood up, all too ready to celebrate.

Jia turned round for a split-second and came face-to-face with a glinting revolver.

It was one of those moments when he could truly say that his heart dropped into his stomach and his stomach tried to make its way out his mouth.

He ducked and sent the gun flying through the air with a hit from his forearm. A deafening gunshot reverberated off the wooden walls and concrete floor. He thanked his lucky stars his reflexes stayed loyal, if he’d been a moment too late it would be a definite death. In his peripherals he spotted another guard be thrown back by the bullet. No blood, thank god for bullet proof vests, but he was sure the guy was owed an apology later. For good measure (and partly out of frustration), he skidded his leg in a circular motion underneath the guard’s feet, knocking him to the floor to land him on his back painfully. Jia almost smirked, _serves him right for trying to shoot me._ He got up from his crouching position and half stumbled half ran towards the other storage room where Yu was hiding. The aftershock of a near-funeral made him tremble. He shook his head, _stay focused!_ Now was not the time to ruminate. Skidding round the bend and making it to the cramped hallway he let himself breathe, he was still alive.

Except something extremely heavy slammed itself into him and sent him falling face-first onto the concrete. He felt two strong hands grip painfully around his ribcage and _squeeze,_ apparently not caring for the sensitivity of a teenager’s sensitive bones. Jia let out a loud yelp in pain, but the guy still didn’t let go. Luck was still on his side though, as he was quick enough to turn his head to the side and avoid a broken nose. His chest and knees took most of the impact, as well as his lungs as the same (very dedicated) guard with the gun landed right on top of him. Though he had sufficient muscle to be decent at kung fu, he was still a skinny guy. And this guard was probably twice his weight.

Summoning all the strength he had and spurred on by sheer motivation to get to Yu, he bent his right leg, lifted his hip and hooked it round the man’s two legs. Using this leverage, he pushed himself up on shaking arms and twisted them both so he was sitting on top. Before the guard could fight back he jumped up, turned and pressed a strong foot to his chest. Jia knelt down, careful to avoid pressing his knee into the guard’s throat, and delivered a sharp downwards strike that instantly knocked him out. Wasting not a moment longer, he continued his running to find Yu.

* * *

Jia massaged his ribs absent-mindedly, as if remembering the pain. His side of the story was horribly jarring, and Po could do nothing but sit in awe-struck silence.

“Okay, I think it’s _my_ turn to take over the story.” Yu Ting said excitedly, ignoring Po’s lack of addition. “I was hidden between the two shipping containers…”

* * *

Standing on her tiptoes and trying not to breathe too hard, Yu raised her watch to the side of her face, hoping the poor microphone would pick up on her speech. “Now what? If they catch me then I’m done because I can hardly move.”

There was a tense silence where Cong was obviously trying to think of a solution. “ _Okay, um…”_ Some fumbling around was heard and a long “err” made its way across. _“Jia’s pretty close, I’ll send him over._ ” He said finally.

Yu let her hand fall, the knowledge that Jia would soon come to her aid was comforting. Splitting up seemed like a good idea at first, with such a large warehouse the drugs could be hidden anywhere. Covering more ground in less time was appealing, no one wanted to overstay their welcome. While the place had quite a few guards on the outside, the number was fairly small, so everyone was confident in their abilities to be able to take them on solo. But, she guessed, they got a little cocky.

She glanced at her watch. Jia was really taking his sweet time. Exhaling proved to be a bit painful as her lungs pressed against the hard metal of the shipping containers, instead she settled for hitting her head against the container behind her with a dull _thud._ She instinctively gasped, a swear word hot on her tongue upon realising the container was _metal_ and metal made _noise_.

But none came. No echoing metallic clang or vibrating walls. Just the thud she’d previously expected. She frowned. That didn’t seem right. Tapping the metal with her knuckle her guess was confirmed. She stared in front of her at the other container and tapped that one too. It made the same sound.

They were full.

Cong’s words played in her head, _there are loads of guards around you._ She shifted her shoulders downwards and shimmied her body so she was almost lying on the concrete. The tiny printed words at the bottom of the shipping container read _Class A,_ confirming her suspicions.

“Ying, I think I’ve found the drugs.” She whispered to her watch as loud as she dared.

It came to life almost immediately. “ _Where? Some boxes?_ ” Ying sounded out of breath, what had she been doing?

“No, shipping containers, I’m in the same compartment I went to when we split up. Come over here and I’ll get on top of them as a vantage point.” Right after saying that she peered up and realised how tall they were. _Why did I say that? How am supposed to get up there?_

“ _Thank god you found them, I’ll get there soon, stay hidden.”_

Yu gritted her teeth, now there was no going back. The only option was to use pure strength to get herself up. She raised her toes up and pressed the balls of her feet against the container in front of her, and simultaneously pushed her back into the one behind her. Putting both hands on the metal wall either side of her hips, she stepped her feet up a little so she was completely suspended between the two. She took a deep breath. _Okay, you got this._ Her trainers provided some much-needed friction, in contrast to the hoodie, whose soft cotton material she felt would slip any minute. Bit by bit, she edged herself up at a snail’s pace.

An ear-splitting gunshot broke her concentration, and what little progress she made came undone as she fell hard to the floor.

“What was that?”

“There’s an intruder!”

“More than one! There’s still no response from CCTV!”

The pain she contracted was suddenly very insignificant as the overwhelming urge to vomit took her. A gun shot. Whoever got hit would be injured horribly at best. Or most likely… die. She clasped a sweaty hand under her mask to her mouth, trying hard not to hyperventilate. Her conscious screamed at her to stay calm. _Stay calm! You have to stay calm!_ This was not the time to panic. She sent a silent prayer that everyone was still alive as her eyes started to fill with pre-mourning tears. Looking up again, she swallowed. She had to get up there. Then fight whoever fired that fucking gun.

* * *

“I was _mad_ mad,” Yu Ting said with the utmost seriousness. “I don’t usually get mad, but when someone whips out a gun… that really gets me.” She uttered those last few words with so much venom that Po had to stop himself from flinching.

This was apparently a common occurrence, as the others were unphased.

“And this is where _I_ take over.” Fan Hai said proudly. “I haven’t been mentioned yet, but hold your horses Po, I’m very important to the story…”

* * *

In a way it made sense that he was always the first choice to be forced to go undercover. Because Fan was not the shortest member of their team. Yu took that title. He wasn’t even the second shortest, that was a tie between Cong and Ying. The tallest ended up being Jia. But why he, Fan Hai, the one with the loudest voice (seriously, it travelled very far) was made to go undercover _way_ more than the others was a little baffling. The height kind of made sense, though Cong would still be a better choice, but his deep voice was a little jarring to most people. He was supposed to be inconspicuous. Unnoticed and unseen. The voice did not help. He didn’t even look generic, as he was a little more muscular than your common Chinese twenty-year-old male (something he was very proud of, thank you very much).

Thankfully, the guard uniform he was wearing certainly did _not_ do his figure justice.

He was able to avoid engaging in any sort of conversation that would cause the other guards to realise that they’d never met him before. Being the first one to go in the warehouse already caused him a trembling amount of pressure, he didn’t know if he’d have the ability to say anything non-incriminating. As he shuffled around the different areas of the warehouse he muttered various pieces of information to attentive ears (who were probably sitting in the car having a grand old time) into that handy little watch. He quickly found the CCTV room, that would be the first to go to. Cong happily agreed on the other end of the line, and Fan purposely distracted some of the guards with mindless small talk while Cong crept behind them. He knew Yu and Jia were already on the move to two different parts of the warehouse.

Once the news of the CCTV room reached their radios, Fan quickly volunteered to go investigate, simultaneously distracting a group of guards from Ying creeping up behind them. Once reaching the room he opened the door and had it immediately slammed in his face with the intent of hurting someone.

“Oi! It’s me!” He pounded on the door, annoyed that Cong had the urge to just _slam_ it like that when he had full knowledge that he was coming.

Cong’s apologetic face appeared and let him in. “Ahaha, sorry dude.” Fan shoved him good-naturedly and closed the door behind him.

“Any luck?” He asked. “I didn’t want to appear to suspicious and start asking around for where they’re keeping the drugs.”

Cong turned to the numerous TV screens, expertly stepping over the three unconscious bodies on the floor, and pointed at each one. “Yu’s between these two shipping containers, Ying’s going… somewhere, and Jia – oh SHIT!”

They both gaped and paled at the sight of glinting metal in the camera.

Jia, (god knows how) managed to fight back fast enough to hit the gun away, and a distant shot accompanied the sight of another guard getting thrown back.

Cong was gripping his arm, and Fan didn’t realise he’d done the same thing. “Holy shit.” He breathed.

“That was terrifying.” Cong nodded, sounding just as relieved as Fan.

The action on the other screens happened almost instantly. Yu fell from where she’d apparently been edging herself up the two containers, and Ying stopped her running completely, slowly raising her watch to her mouth. 

Cong swallowed. “We should go help them, I think everyone’s done with being secret.”

“Agreed.” Fan put a hand to racing heart and breathed slowly. _Jia you really gave us a scare._

Cong blinked a few times and ducked down, retrieving his bag. He wiped his eyes discreetly and handed it to him. “Here you go, it’s got the mask and everything in there.”

Fan took it and busied himself with wriggling out of the heavy guard uniform to distract himself from the horrible _what if_ s. Once clothed completely in black, they both put the masks on and looked at each other.

“I’ll go to Jia, you go to Yu, agreed?”

Cong nodded. They shared a small bro side-hug and ran off to their respective places.

Fan raced down three flights of stairs before hearing the sound of a body hitting the floor, followed by a loud, familiar-sounding yelp. He stopped in his tracks and ran towards the noise. The fall sounded painful, and he hoped dearly he wouldn’t have to give any serious medical attention. Speeding up, he almost fell over on his way round the bends and ran right into someone with a loud “Oof!”

Fan let out a massive sigh of relief at the sight of a confused Jia, mask half off. “DUDE!” He groaned, and hugged him tightly. “I’m so glad you’re still alive!”

Jia hesitated, but hugged him back. “You heard the gun shot, huh?” He said, patting Fan uncomfortably.

“ _Everyone_ heard it!” Fan exclaimed, how could he be so nonchalant?

He held onto Jia for a little longer than was necessary, and gave him a last squeeze. “Man, if I hadn’t been watching the CCTV then I’d be so worried.”

“Thanks for caring about me,” Jia started, peeling Fan off him. “but Yu needs our help.”

“Ah, right,” Fan adjusted both their masks. “she’s probably crying already, so let’s go!”

* * *

“You know what, that was one of the most terrifying things I’ve had to witness.” Fan Hai commented, putting a hand to his heart and the other gesturing towards Jia.

“Funnily enough I felt the same, Fan.” He responded drily.

“No, _honestly,_ I’d actually miss you if you died.” Fan Hai said sincerely.

Ying snorted. “What a way to put it.”

Po could only breath in awe, still taking in the story. “What was it like going undercover? How did you manage to distract the other guards?”

Fan Hai frowned in thought. “I don’t think too much about it, I just try to engage in small talk. You know, mundane things.”

“Now that I think about it, I don’t know _how_ you manage to stay undercover.” Jia said slowly, peering at him from across the table.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you _are_ a bit too talkative, a blabber-mouth, if you will.” Yu Ting said carefully, gauging his reaction. “I always have to make sure I don’t tell you anything too secret.”

“Yeah because you tell him something and then he goes and tells Cong who has no filter.” Ying tutted.

Wu Cong huffed. “I do have a filter.”

“Uh, I only tell Cong because he’s my right-hand man!” Fan Hai said as if it was obvious. 

“So?” Jia raised an eyebrow. “You know Cong can’t keep secrets. We found out about the almond cookies after only two weeks, remember?”

“Cong is right here, you know.”

“Wait, hold up, for just a second?” Po waved his hands frantically. “You guys keep going off on your own little conversations. Everything is so chaotic!”

Fan Hai shrugged. “Dude, it’s just how we are.”

“How do you get anything done?”

“I can’t tell you how long I’ve been asking myself the same question.” Ying muttered.

“I’m pretty sure Shifu dies a little on the inside whenever he interacts with us.” Jia added.

 _Who?_ “Okay slow down,” Po interjected quickly before they could start another pointless conversation. “you guys keep mentioning this Shifu guy, who is he?”

Fan Hai coughed loudly, hiding his speech behind it. “ _A terrible father_.” He muttered discreetly.

Yu Ting aimed a kick for him under the table, but missed and hit Jia instead. “OUCH!” He yelped, rubbing his shin. “Can we _please_ not resort to violence! Po just wants to hear the story!”

Yu Ting hushed a quick apology to him while Po tried to get them back on track. “Back to the gunshot-“

“Again, I want to clarify that I would miss Jia if he died.” Fan Hai repeated.

“I’m glad you guys appreciate me.” Jia said, a hint of sincerity under the sarcasm.

“But it was very scary though.” Yu Ting added, and turned to Po. “I didn’t even know who’d been shot, that was the scariest part.”

Po nodded slowly, holding his breath in anticipation for the next part of the story. “What happened next? Did they make it on time?”

“I think it’s Ying’s turn to tell, she was in the thick of the action.” Yu Ting said, giving Ying a look.

Ying opened her mouth but stopped at a loud ringtone.

Po felt his heart drop into his stomach as he watched the vibrating phone on the kitchen countertop. The contact photo was visible from where he sat and the memory (which now seemed so distant) of leaving the noodle shop that morning came back. “It’s my dad! He must be so worried!” Po jumped up to take the call but Ying wrapped a surprisingly strong arm around his torso and pushed him back down to the sofa, going down with him.

She recovered quickly from falling on top of him and kneeled up on the edge of the cushions, straddling his leg. “No! He cannot know about us!” She had both hands on his shoulders and it was the most they’d made eye contact since he’d woken up. “Please Po, do not take that call!”

Po wished he could say he was fine, but Ying was definitely stronger than she looked, and he was slightly winded. Still, he persevered. “I – _wheeze_ – I have to! He’ll get – _wheeze –_ he’ll get suspicious! – _wheeze –_ oh god that hurt…” He inhaled and exhaled quickly, trying to regain some of his lung capacity and dignity.

Ying frowned slightly, her lips caught between her teeth and her nails clicking together. She looked completely torn. Po could only guess it was because she didn’t trust him not to spill. If he had to be honest, in her shoes he wouldn’t trust himself either. So he couldn’t really blame her for the disbelieving looks she was shooting him.

“Okay, take the call.” She spoke finally. “But _please,_ say what I tell you.”

She looked so desperate Po had to comply. Someone, he didn’t know who, passed him the phone. He was almost scared to answer, lying was never his forte.

“Hey dad.”

 _“PO! Where have you been?! You said you’d be back by seven! If you hadn’t noticed it’s already NINE!”_ Po physically had to hold the phone away from his ear to not be deafened by the crescendos of yelling, and Ying took this opportunity to tap the call onto speakerphone (as if it wasn’t already loud enough).

“Okay I know I said I’d be back by seven but – “ He stopped abruptly at Ying whispering intently into his ear. “but something uh – came up.”

She glared at him and mouthed something along the lines of “what the hell are you doing?” angrily.

_“What’s the something? Don’t be secretive with me Po!”_

Ying whispered into his ear again, and this time he obeyed. “I’m uh – out with friends. And we’re in the city and we decided, you know, to – uh – have a guys holiday… sort of thing.” Po face-palmed, this was not going to work.

_“Which friends? Have I met them?”_

“No no no! They’re just some guys I met at – uhhh…” He motioned desperately at Ying to give him an answer. “Jade Palace! Yeah, I see them there a lot and we’ve been out for drinks and stuff.” Ying, surprisingly, proved to be pretty helpful, he supposed it was from all the secrets she was used to hiding.

_“But won’t you need any of your stuff? A change of clothes?”_

Po’s eyes widened, the lie had started to catch up on them. Ying, it seemed, was also at a loss.

_“Hello? Are you still there?”_

“Say you’ll pick up some stuff tomorrow, but you’re borrowing some clothes for tonight because you’re too tired!” She hissed.

_“Po? Who is that?”_

Ying mouthed a silent swear word while Po swooped in to save their skins. “That was just one of my friends! I’m borrowing some – clothes, pajamas – for tonight because, you know, it’s getting dark now and I’m tired.” To add to the rapid explanation, he yawned realistically on the end of his phrase. “I’ll swing by tomorrow and pick up a bag – okayIgottagonowbyedad!” He hung up abruptly and cringed at cutting off his dad’s next sentence.

He looked up to the others, who all gave him varying wide-eyed stares. “How’d I do?”

“That was…” Fan Hai faltered, apparently not finding the words to describe how it was.

Cong made a face. “Well I guess if he bought it…”

“It wasn’t _that_ bad, right?” Yu Ting looked round hopefully, but was met by faces of disagreement.

Jia tilted his head and grimaced. “Ehhh – you need – some work,” He said, sounding like he didn’t really believe it himself. “… maybe a bit more than some.”

Po looked at Ying expectantly, surely she had something to say?

She was frowning again. She did that a lot, so much that Po wanted to smooth out the lines around her eyebrows with his thumb. Sliding off his leg and onto the floor, she turned away from him. “You really want to keep him?” She asked them, sounding a little sad.

“What other options do we have?” Fan Hai said as if there was no hope. “There’s no way to just silence him forever.”

Po didn’t know how he felt about their observations. He couldn’t tell if their complete openness with the obvious frustration over the current situation annoyed him. On one hand, it was pretty dis-heartening that his idols were so… _upset_ at his forced stay _._ But on the other hand, what they had seemed special. It was sappy, but the hidden identities, the undercover missions, that was rare. It wasn’t something you’d want to lost to some stupid guy who got too close for his own good.

“I say we train him.” Yu Ting said with determination, sparking a glimmer inside Po, one he couldn’t extinguish. She sounded serious. 

“Shouldn’t we wait ‘till Shifu gets back?” Jia started uncomfortably.

Cong rested his elbows on the table in frustration. “Shifu obviously doesn’t care about this enough to clear his schedule, so I agree with Yu.”

Ying shook her head. “Shifu must care, he knocked Po out the first time, remember?”

“ _That_ was Shifu!?” Po spluttered, unable to hold his silence but finally able to put a face to the mystery name.

“Yeah…”

“Yep.”

“That’s him.”

“My man really hit you hard.” Cong shook his head apologetically, smiling slightly. “He can be harsh when he wants to.”

Po gaped at them (he was doing so much gaping he must have looked like a damn fish).

“He’s our kung fu master,” Yu Ting said quickly, sensing his surprise. “technically our spy master as well if you want to put it like that.”

The thought that the old man was passing on knowledge to younger students was _awesome._ “That is… seriously cool.” Po breathed.

“Speaking of Shifu, he wanted us to get an early night,” Ying got up and dusted herself down, still not facing Po. “so we better get to bed.” He almost grabbed her hand to stop the abrupt finality.

“But what about the ending of the drug bust?! You can’t leave me hanging!” He called after her retreating back.

She turned round and fixed him with the same stare she had when he first woke up. “I’ll tell it tomorrow, when I’ve given it some thought.” And with that cold statement, she left.

“Again, Ying’s always gonna get her way.” Fan Hai repeated, with a small ounce of fondness.

Po had felt a great amount of confusion all day. But now his curiousity was piqued at levels he couldn’t even comprehend. He didn’t even care that the Furious Five had him hooked on every word. Nothing else seemed to matter anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This and the next chapter were originally going to be one chapter, but it got far too long, so enjoy this cliffhanger. 
> 
> You might be able to tell that I took inspiration from Crane's fight with Kai for Jia's fight with the guard. I've watched the scene endlessly, but I couldn't really figure out how Crane managed to twist Kai around like he did. So I went for a version that's a little easier to digest. Coupled with the fact that I actually acted this out on my bedroom floor to see if it was humanly possible. 
> 
> I didn't really do extensive research on kung fu, I feel like it's very easy to fall into the rabbit-hole of trying to get every move perfect. And I've got a lot on my plate at the moment, so it would be a bit time-consuming for my perfectionist arse. 
> 
> A couple of readers asked early on what they look like as humans. That's honestly up to you, the person reading this. You can imagine them as your favourite K-pop idols or just normal Chinese people. I don't want to do full-length descriptions on the way they look because that's not relevant to the story (apart from their body types/height) and hair/eye colour would all be pretty much the same anyway. There's only one character who's looks really matter, but that won't come up until the penultimate chapter for story reasons.
> 
> I'm honestly trying to keep this story really concise and top it at ten chapters, but man there's so much to tell in this universe! It's all word vomit at the moment. 
> 
> Thank you for the interest in this weird, convoluted story :)


	4. Texting can get chaotic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wu Cong accompanies Po down to the village, and learns a little something from him along the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ying - Tigress  
> Yu Ting - Viper  
> Jia - Crane  
> Wu Cong - Monkey  
> Fan Hai - Mantis

The bowl of congee was growing cold.

Ying had half a mind to dump it in the bin out of spite. But the other half knew it would be a waste of perfectly good food that would get eaten eventually. So she put it in the fridge for heating up later. She peered at the contents carefully. There wasn’t much left, save for a bag of the ends of bread no one liked. They’d have to make a shopping trip soon.

Tearing her eyes away from the fridge, Cong stumbled in, messy bedhead, shirtless and yawning. She grabbed the milk, knowing from experience that he was going to make a beeline for it.

“Where did Po sleep last night?” She asked him, and pressed the milk bottle to his exposed stomach.

He yelped at the sudden cold. “Holy shit!” He jumped away from her, waking up instantly, and cast her a dark look. “That’s freezing!”

Ying allowed herself to smirk evilly. She’d never tried that trick before to wake them up, but it appeared extremely effective.

Cong was hugging his stomach, trying to get the heat back and not noticing her smirk. “Po bunked with Jia, not Jia’s choice of course, but we played rock, paper, scissors and he lost every game.”

She nodded, that sounded about right. “And did you tell him what time he needed to get up?”

“…no?”

She grabbed the kitchen towel and whipped him with it.

“YING! It’s too early for this!”

“It’s already nine thirty!” She shouted back. “Today is a MONDAY we have WORK that starts in HALF AN HOUR!”

Cong blinked at her stupidly, still trying to comprehend everything through his half-asleep mind. “But I assumed – I assumed we’d take a day off ‘cause… you know, the whole-“

She whipped him with the towel again. “NO!” Ying closed her eyes and pressed a hand to her face gathering all the patience she had. It was going to be a long day. “…let’s just go and wake him up.”

Cong didn’t bother protesting and followed her meekly out kitchen and upstairs to the hallway of their rooms. All the doors except for hers and Cong’s were shut with light snores coming from behind each one. They were fast asleep. _Shifu would have a fit if he saw this._ Ying almost considered grabbing the woks from downstairs and waking them up in her favourite way. But that wasn’t a good idea, doing that always put them in bad moods. That being said, they weren’t helping her current mood.

“Are you kidding me?” She muttered, staring down to no room in particular.

“So, Fan may have told everyone to sleep in…” Cong started guiltily.

She exhaled loudly. _Stress is bad for the mind, stress is bad for the mind…_ The mantra never did anything. Though she loved them, they really did cause her some petty, unneeded worries. Holding up a hand to get Cong to stop talking, she kicked open Fan’s door, ricocheting it satisfyingly off the wall. The form under his duvet flinched and groaned loudly, the black tuft of hair disappearing under the sheets.

Cong had rushed forward and put two hands on her arm. “Ying, _Ying_ , let’s talk about this-!“

“Wake up.” She stalked closer to Fan, grabbed the end of his duvet and tried to tug it off him.

Even in his sleep, Fan was still incredibly strong, and yanked it so hard she face-planted into his mattress.

“WAKE UP!” She yelled, recovering quickly but still trying to wrestle the duvet from him.

“NO!”

After an almost violent tug-of-war she finally managed to take the duvet away, leaving a pleasing moment where he shivered pitifully without it. “WHY DID YOU TELL EVERYONE TO SLEEP IN?!”

 _This_ got Fan to wake up. He sprung out of bed as if it was lava and pointed at Cong accusingly. “You traitor! It was _him_ who said we could sleep in!”

Ying dropped the duvet and slowly turned her head to allow the glare to be as strong as possible. “Seriously?”

Cong immediately put his hands up in surrender. “In my defence –“

“There’s no defence!” Both Ying and Fan exclaimed.

“- I honestly thought we just… wouldn’t open today.”

Fan reached forward and smacked him upside the head. “You sounded _so_ convinced yesterday.”

Ying punched Fan in the arm, knowing that he wouldn’t really feel it. “You _also_ went along with it,” She rolled her eyes. “you’re both in the same boat.”

Fan groaned loudly, and started to crawl back into bed. Only to get up with alarm when Ying quickly left and made her way to Jia’s room. Both Fan and Cong were hot on her tail.

“Wait what are you –“

“Ying! Please don’t –“

She knocked loudly, to the sighs of relief from Fan and Cong. “Wake up!” She called.

“I’M UP!” Came Po’s terrified shout.

She frowned at the solo voice. “Are you decent?”

He said a weak yes and she opened the door wide and looked round the room and the empty bed. “Where the _hell_ is Jia.” She growled.

“I – uh – I think I heard the door open and close during the night…” Po muttered weakly.

She looked back at him and tried to soften her glare. He had the sheets pulled up to his chin and seemed frozen in fear. It probably didn’t help that her and Fan had been yelling, plus the fact that he was on the floor while she towered over.

She sighed. “Right, Po, your restaurant doesn’t get busy at this time, yes?”

He nodded. “Customers don’t start ordering ‘till twelve.”

“Ok, Cong is going to go down with you to the city to pick up your stuff and keep your cover.”

“ _What?!_ When did we decide on that?!” Cong spluttered from behind her.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “When you told everyone to sleep in.” She hissed, to Fan’s snickering.

“This is _so_ unfair…” She heard him mutter as she made her way to Yu’s room.

She was so over everything that she didn’t bother knocking, and instead pushed the door wide open.

“Thanks for knocking Ying.” Came Jia’s tired remark from the floor on the bundle of sheets he’d been sleeping on.

“The yelling and slamming doors should have been warning enough.” Said Yu boredly, idly scrolling through something on her phone.

Ying blinked at the state of them. Yu was generally an early bird, and she sometimes got up even earlier than herself. Jia liked having lie-ins but always got up before nine to enjoy the morning breeze. But now they were just… lazing around? And the worst offender being that Jia actually left his own room in the middle of the night with his duvet and a blanket to go sleep on Yu’s floor. Shifu would go ballistic.

“Why are you in here?” She demanded, kicking his duvet aside with disgust.

“I still don’t trust him,” Jia said, pushing himself into a seating position. “also he snores.” He added as an afterthought.

Yu put her phone down to give him a look. “A bit rich coming from you.” Then chuckled at his offended face.

“That was _one_ time and it was only because I slept like a _log_!”

“Still woke me up though.” Her annoyed tone played in contrast to her affectionate eye roll.

Ying was steadily growing bored of their interactions, this was why she preferred being the third wheel to Fan and Cong. “How come Yu didn’t hammer you when you woke her up?”

Yu shrugged. “He was polite.”

“And I had a peace offering,” Jia pointed to the tea set sitting on Yu’s dresser. “a cup of oolong.”

Ying didn’t bother to comment on how low Yu’s standards were on whether she fought with someone or not and just sighed loudly. “Get dressed, we’ve got work in half an hour.” She said, backing away and closing the door.

She turned to leave and came face-to-face with Po. “Did my – did my snoring wake him up?” He asked nervously.

“No you’re good,” She said, her tone still a little colder than she would have liked. “and he snores as well anyway.” She moved past him, gesturing for him to follow her down the stairs where Cong was waiting, fully dressed and in a bad mood.

She made an extravagant bow to him. “Enjoy the Thousand Steps, Wu Cong.” She said deeply, while he muttered insults to her name, then bounded away with a stupid smile on her face. Even in dire situations, it was fun to be silly.

* * *

Wu Cong led Po out of the… house? That wasn’t quite the right word for it. Hideout? No, it wasn’t some sort of underground bunker. It was built like a house though, even if it was a little on the… weird side. It had a kitchen, living room, bedrooms, bathrooms and all normal stuff. Except the fact that all houses _definitely_ had courtyards with underground tunnels leading straight to your day job, because _that_ was totally normal.

“What is this… uh, house – thing.” Po asked, looking back towards the building.

Wu Cong squinted at it, perhaps because of the sun or because he didn’t know himself. “Well, we call it home.” He said, an air of sentiment behind it. “Back in the old days this used to be the student barracks.”

“ _Really?!_ ”

Wu Cong nodded, satisfied at Po’s amazement. “Sounds cool and everything, until you realise that the walls between the rooms would have been made of paper.” He shuddered as if the mere thought disturbed him, and Po had to admit the feeling was mutual. “Anyway, let’s go, getting down the Thousand Steps takes so long it kills me.”

Wu Cong swiftly started to make his way through the vegetation Tarzan-style, pushing the branches and leaves out of the way as if his arms were machetes. Po stumbled along behind him, ducking the occasional branch getting flung back into his face.

Almost tripping over a disguised rock, Po attempted conversation. “Since you guys – hate the Thousand steps – _ouch!_ – ah – how come you haven’t found a way to make it easier to… you know, get up?” He had to concentrate very heavily on making his breathing sound normal, he did _not_ want to expose how pathetically unfit he was.

“Believe it or not, we had the genius idea to buy a ski lift,” Wu Cong tapped his head with a smug smile. “ _but_ , Shifu said we didn’t have the budget and, I quote, ‘having the steps means you can’t skip leg day’, which is _bullshit_ because we never skip leg day!” This was obviously a very passionate subject matter, as Cong had jumped off the small, rocky cliff leading in the direction of the Jade Palace in a frustrated manner. “See? I obviously don’t skip leg day.”

Po made a quick hum of agreement.

“We were all in favour of it , since it would bring more tourists anyway, but _noooo_ ,” He wagged his finger childishly as if someone (most likely Shifu) was actually standing there getting berated. “the rest of the budget goes towards the _stray fucking cats._ ”

“Cats?”

Cong pointed to a white tuft of hair caught in a random tree branch. “A load of cats just hand around the house and I’m pretty sure they live in the forest. Well, Shifu has a soft spot for these cats and he makes sure that we put food out everyday for them, food that comes out of _our_ budget!” He tutted loudly. “And now the cats just don’t leave, and there are some that are _always_ in the house because Shifu won’t let us evacuate them.”

That made a lot of sense. Po did hear some random scuffling and scratching during the night. It had probably been one of the cats rather than a terrifying ghost or something. Though it would have been nice to know this _before_ going to bed last night. As when Jia had left the room, he’d spent the better part of the next hour trembling under the covers with paranoia forming stupid reasons for the scratching sounds. The most terrifying reason his mind had settled on was that they were planning an elaborate plot to kill him and be rid of him once and for all. Which, in all honesty, didn’t seem far-fetched at the time when Jia left the room without saying a word. Plus, their track record on with-holding information was horribly bad. But Po couldn’t blame them on wanting to keep all their various secrets. He did, after all, stumble upon -

“Po?”

“Hmm?”

Wu Cong was looking at Po expectantly. “If you have any questions, just ask.”

Po attempted a fake scoff. “Questions? Me? Nah! I’m good! I _completely_ understand everything you’re - … yeah I’ve got questions.” His admission was long overdue, according to Wu Cong’s amused grin.

“I thought so, you’ve looked perpetually confused the whole time you’ve been here.” He swiftly started to descend the steps, avoiding the various tourists making their way to the Palace entrance. “It probably didn’t help that we did a whole story time for you last night.”

Po had to jump out the way for an incoming group of tourists holding cameras and bulky backpacks, once the cloud had passed he quickly ran after Wu Cong. “I liked the story! Honestly! I mean yeah it was a bit… all over the place, but it was still awesome!”

A genuine smile was given to him. “Hey, thanks dude,” He nudged him in a brotherly manner. “it was pretty fun for us as well, we don’t get to exchange stories much.”

“I do wanna know though,” Po started slowly. “why work at the Jade Palace? Surely that takes time out of your day?”

“That’s where our budget comes from,” He said. “whatever donations we get and money we make from the gift shop. You’d be surprised by how much people are willing to pay for souvenirs.”

“But then, why don’t you just hire normal people and let them do the work for you?”

Wu Cong shrugged. “It gives us a good cover story,” He gestured over to the Palace, now starting to fill with the day’s tourists. “people see that as a tourist attraction, and we’re just the employees, who would suspect us?”

Po looked back to the Palace and had to agree. If he hadn’t followed (well, followed was a light word for it…) Ying through the staff room then he’d still be blissfully unaware of the whereabouts of his idols. There was no real indication that something secretive was hidden under the Palace floors. The only one being that the Palace held kung fu artifacts, but even then, that was a stretch.

Wu Cong seemed to be mulling over his rhetorical question. “Well, I guess _you_ did.” He muttered, reflecting yesterday’s sober mood.

Po grimaced and focused on the stone steps in front of him. The awkwardness was not something he’d anticipated with Wu Cong. He gave a much friendlier vibe and didn’t look at him with various uneasy and uncomfortable glares.

“Tell me, Po,” Wu Cong started after almost five minutes of painful silence. “what do you think of all this?”

“All of this… spy stuff?”

“Yeah, in a general way.”

He had to open and close his mouth a few times to give himself time to think carefully of his word choices. On one hand, he didn’t want to come off as some crazed fan who was absolutely obsessed with these… spies. On the other hand, did that really matter anymore? He’d already outed himself as a lover of kung fu, how could he damage his dignity anymore than he already had?

“It’s seriously cool. Like, I think it’s _crazy_ that you guys can do this stuff and not get caught!” He made huge, excited circles with his hands, almost picturing the drug bust that was detailed the day before. “And it’s so awesome that you do this stuff! You’re like, doing good things but without the glory or fame!” A huge grin stole the place of his grimace. He couldn’t help it, the little balloon inside him had grown to great proportions and wasn’t showing any sign of dying down.

“Good, because I’m pretty sure you’re gonna have to stick around with us for a while.” He said, casually jumping down the last few steps (something Po didn’t dare to try as it would most likely end with a twisted ankle).

Stopping the gushing that fought to get out his mouth again, Po forced himself to think clearly. “Are you – are you sure about that?” Wu Cong waited patiently for him at the bottom of the steps. “I mean, I feel like the others aren’t too keen on – you know…”

Wu Cong batted his hand as if swatting a fly. “Don’t worry about it! Fan’s easy to get on with, Jia, when you get to know him, is a bit less of a prick, Yu obviously likes everyone –“

“And Ying?” Po interrupted. “Ying doesn’t seem too happy.”

Wu Cong didn’t falter. “You need to give her time,” He said wisely. “she’s not easy to read, and the Ying you’ve seen so far is just the surface layer, she’s really not as bad as she makes herself out to be.”

Po snorted disbelievingly. “Yeah and she definitely _doesn’t_ hate me.” He remarked sarcastically.

“She made you breakfast this morning.”

Po stopped in his tracks. _Oh._ “Is that a –“

“No it’s not a normal thing,” He pushed him forwards through the crowd to keep them moving. “with breakfast it’s every man for himself, and whoever wakes up too late gets the scraps no one wants.”

Po said nothing.

The rest of their walk to the restaurant left Po very dazed. He didn’t know what to feel about Ying making him breakfast. And if he had to be honest, he didn’t know what it meant. It could be a sign of peace, a sign that she wanted to finish the story from yesterday over some good food. Or, it meant she cared enough to not leave him on his own his first morning at their house. Either way, surely this was a good thing?

“This is it, right?” Wu Cong asked, pointing to the restaurant cosily squeezed between a hairdressers and a tattoo parlour.

Po broke out of his musing. “Yeah, we live above it, it’s not much but, you know.”

“Hey,” Wu Cong turned himself towards Po. “I’m in no position to judge someone’s living space, believe me, and you also shouldn’t feel the need to disclaim it, it’s your home after all, so don’t say that.” He said firmly yet gently.

Po nodded until he looked satisfied. “Right, the cover is that I’m a new friend who lives on the other side of the city and we met at the Palace a few months ago. We’ve been hanging out for a while and decided last night when we went out for a drink that we should go on a holiday with some other friends I know from school, got it?”

Po blinked at him, when had he come up with that plan? Last night? Maybe after he’d gone to bed. But then he hadn’t known he was going to be the unlucky one escorting him.

“Got it?” Wu Cong repeated.

“Uh – yeah – yes! I’ve got it.” Po said quickly.

Wu Cong gave him a searching look, much like he was being scrutinised, and smiled when he was convinced of what he saw. “On we go then.” He marched them up with confidence Po wouldn’t have walking into a stranger’s house.

Upon entering the still-empty restaurant, Po worked his way around the furniture and straight to the kitchen.

He paused at the door. “Do you, uh, wanna come in?”

“Of _course_ I want to see how this food is made!” Wu Cong, eager to see the kitchen, pushed open the door before Po had the chance to.

“Po!” Came his dad’s voice from behind a puff of steam. He batted away the small cloud and came forward to engulf Po in a hug, one which he gladly returned. “And do you want to introduce me to your friend here?”

“This is – uhhh…” Po faltered. This was something he wasn’t debriefed on. Did they have fake names? Was he forbidden to say the name Wu Cong?

Luckily, an answer was given.

“Wu Cong, sir.” He shook his dad’s hand with a friendly gesture. A friendly gesture that Po hadn’t seen.

It wasn’t friendly in the sort of way he interacted with Fan Hai. Not with glee like the kind of glee he exhibited when Jia lost the game of rock paper scissors last night. It was a little like customer service, but harder to spot the veneer. He supposed that was what being a… spy was all about. Were they spies? Or did they simply work undercover, in the shadows. It didn’t seem that simple. He _really_ had to start asking more questions.

“I love your food, by the way, I’ve ordered from here a few times.” Wu Cong said, sincerely this time. 

His dad was enjoying every moment. “Thank you!”

“The custard baos are my favourite.” He carried on, smiling widely.

“Such a kind person!” His dad clasped both hands together and turned back to him. “You never bring your other friends home.” _Please stop talking,_ Po tried to silently communicate with urgent eyes to his dad to stop rambling. “I know you said Jade Palace but how exactly did you meet him?”

Po hesitated. The legendary phone call had not gone very well. Minor lying he could do. But this? This was so much pressure. This was probably the biggest secret in all of China! How was he supposed to act cool in front of his dad who knew him inside and out?

“We met at the Palace – during a – during a tour.” He said quickly, with Wu Cong giving him a subtle encouraging look. “And yesterday we were out for drinks and that’s how – that’s how we decided to go for a… guys holiday.” He tried desperately not to physically cringe too much and give away the lie. “And I haven’t used any of my days off this year so, you know – I think this is good to do.”

His dad appeared slightly sceptical, and probably would have called his bluff if it weren’t for the physical proof of Wu Cong. “Well then, how long will you be away?”

They hadn’t prepared for this. “Errr…” Po started sounding much like a microwave.

“About a week,” Wu Cong cut across. “maybe longer depending on the other guys, you know how it is.” He gave a cheeky wink and Po had to fight the urge to looked shocked at his casualness.

“That sounds good! The other cooks can manage just fine without Po!” His dad seemed to really take a shine to Wu Cong. “And I’m surprised he’s even going away with friends because usually he-“

“OKAY!” He interrupted. “Let me get my stuff and we’ll be off!” He said loudly, and pushed his way past the kitchen, into the back room and up the stairs to their humble home. “Wu Cong you stay there!” He called back quickly, he seriously did _not_ want to brandish his embarrassingly messy room.

* * *

While Po had run off upstairs, Mr Ping had gone after him and Cong sincerely hoped Po would stick with the cover story. Left in the kitchen with only the busy cooks for company, Cong took the time to check his phone. It had been vibrating like mad since leaving the house and he was starting to grow frustrated. His friends had left a whole conversation of scrollable texting in the group chat that he was seriously considering muting.

**Ying:** _@Cong, you have to question Po when you’re out_

**Yu:** _I thought we trusted him???_

**Fan:** _i still don’t and neither does jia_

**Jia:** _But what are we questioning him on?_

**Ying:** _Yesterday he told his dad he’d be back by 9_

**Yu:** _So?_

**Yu:** _I don’t see anything wrong_

**Ying:** _He applied for a job here and ONLY here in the AM_

**Yu:** _Ohhh I see what you mean_

**Ying:** _He must have a motive, he couldn’t assume he was gonna get hired on the spot and instantly start working THE DAY he gets hired_

**Jia:** _What if he was just making his way round the museums? I wouldn’t be surprised bc he likes kung fu and some people are weird like that_

**Ying:** _And he’d leave all day for that??? I’m not buying_

**Fan:** _idk but I’m w ying, seems fishy_

**Fan:** _brb_

**Fan:** _ducking customers_

Cong had to roll his eyes at Fan’s abrupt goodbye message. It wasn’t often they texted while at work due to the numerous jobs that needed doing. The Palace wasn’t huge, but it was sizable enough for large amounts of tourists with various needs from unwilling employees. Fan, he assumed, was manning the till at the gift shop, judging by the annoyed texting. It wasn’t the _worst_ job, but when busy, was definitely no piece of cake. The next few messages were back and forth debates with various amounts of caps lock so they could be ignored. He scrolled quickly until finding a huge chunk of text from Ying with all the questions he had to interrogate Po on. _Oh for fuck’s sake…_

Ying was being ridiculous. Okay _yes_ the whole thing was pretty suspicious and _yes_ she had a right to want to question him but this was getting out of hand. Her demands were high and Cong didn’t know if he was going to get away with it. Luckily, the others texted their disagreement with some of the more obvious questions and he hopped on the tail end of their conversation.

 _He’s gonna suspect smth,_ _I’ll try but he’s not that stupid._

**Yu:** _Yeah but don’t ask the fifth one_

**Yu:** _Too obvious_

**Jia:** _I still don’t think this will go down well, some of these are so obvious that I don’t see how you’ll work them into conversation and not sound weird af_

**Fan:** _dude don’t listen to them you’re usually good w stuff like this_

**Ying:** _For once I’m w Fan_

**Jia:** _Yeah but even then he probably won’t give you answers_

**Fan:** _wdym?_

**Jia:** _I talked to him last night before bed and he didn’t want to give away anything personal, and I’m being serious here when I say that you won’t get anywhere w this bc he’ll just dodge everything, honest to god I could not get a word out of him and I’m pretty sure he was too tired to get annoyed at me last night, so you could start questioning him but it could all go to shit_

Cong couldn’t believe his eyes at the lengthy message. This went in the history books as the two most disappointing days for their team. The others shared hi sentiment and the chat exploded with messages.

_WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY ANYTHING??_

**Ying:** _YOU LITERALLY HAD ONE JOB_

_FFS JIA_

**Yu:** _SERIOUSLY JIA?_

**Fan:** _DUDE WTF_

**Jia:** _I didn’t think it was important!_

Cong tore his eyes away from the onslaught of angry texts and stuffed his phone in his back pocket to greet Po coming back with a large duffle bag.

He plastered a friendly grin on his face. “Hey Po, ready to leave?”

Po nodded and Mr Ping hugged him rather enthusiastically goodbye.

“Have fun son!” He said happily, and turned to Cong. “And you, don’t forget to come and visit! As a token I’ll give you a discount!”

Cong lit up properly at the mention of a discount. “Oh definitely!” He said excitedly. “Yours is probably the best food in the whole city!”

“Come _on_ ,” Po tugged on his sleeve impatiently. “let’s go already.”

“It was nice meeting you Mr Ping!” Cong waved as Po dragged him out the kitchen.

“You too Po’s friend!”

Guiding him through the tables, Po groaned loudly. “Did you _have_ to say that?”

Cong stopped. “Say what?”

“That stuff about our food,” He replied, still walking forwards. “it’s not like it helps your cover story or anything.”

“But I love your food!” Cong put a hand on Po’s shoulder and forcefully turned him around. “And we were being honest when we said that we ordered from you all the time!” 

Po looked a little less sceptical. “Really?” The tone was still challenging.

“Why would I lie?”

Po gave him an annoyed look and gestured roughly around them .

Cong chuckled awkwardly. “Okay that wasn’t the best choice of words… but still, I’m being honest when I say this is the best food in the city, because it seriously is.”

At Po’s face of approval Cong pushed them both out the restaurant and out to the busy streets.

“So,” He started in a casual tone. “you’ve heard a lot about us, what about yourself?”

Po elbowed his way past a crowd and looked around uneasily at him. “Err – what d’you wanna know?” He said hesitantly.

“For starters, what are your plans for the near future? Uni? Maybe culinary school since you cook?” Cong had to mentally pat himself on the back, the first question was delivered naturally enough.

The brisk stride they had taken meant that Po took a little time before answering. “Well… you know what it’s like with uh – gap years.”

Cong hummed in acknowledgement. Po didn’t quite dodge the question as much as Jia said he would. Besides, Jia wasn’t always the best at interrogations. “How old are you anyway? Twenty?”

“I turn twenty in a few months.”

Cong grinned and elbowed him suggestively. “Ying’s nineteen too! You guys could be _such_ good friends.”

Po looked as if he was going defy his statement, but instead closed his mouth and simply nodded. Cong suspected it was due to Ying making him breakfast this morning. And to be honest, he didn’t really understand _himself_ why she had chosen to be so hospitable.

“So back to the gap year thing,” He continued, careful not to push any unassuming buttons. “are you just sort of doing odd jobs and stuff?”

Their long strides had taken them to the Thousand Steps, and Cong had to take a moment to mentally prepare himself for the leg workout he was about to get.

“What do you mean?” Po asked, also stopping at the start of the steps.

Cong stepped up first with an exasperated sigh. “You know what I mean,” The sun was _really_ beating down, and part of him wished he’d brought a hat to avoid the inevitable sunburn. “you already have a job at your dad’s restaurant but still tried to apply at the Palace.”

“And what about it?”

Cong almost slapped a hand to his face at the attitude in Po’s comment. “Most people don’t apply somewhere else while having a… _decent_ job with a heritage attached to it, that’s all.”

“What are you getting at?”

He wanted to push him down the stairs. It was like pulling teeth! He was seriously deflecting all questions with questions of his _own_ and Cong was stupidly falling for it. “ _Why?_ Why did you want to work at the Palace?!” It took all his inner strength not to raise his voice.

Po just shrugged. “’cause I felt like it.”

Cong physically stopped, leaving Po to climb the next few steps without him. He bounded over with the agility he usually only displayed in the training room.

“Yes but what –“ He huffed loudly, how was he meant to word it? “- what made you _want_ to work with us?”

“Maybe the pay was better, I don’t know, the reason _most_ people change jobs?” The hostility in his voice was not lost on Cong, and he feared that Jia was definitely right.

They trekked up in silence for a bit while Cong cringed over the questions he was meant to have answers to.

“Okay, job aside,” He said quickly, not wanting to wallow in the awkwardness any longer. “what are your hobbies, interests, things like that.”

“Why?”

“Because I want to get to know you!” He exclaimed, losing control over his bubbling temper momentarily Then took a deep breath and lowered his voice. “If you’re going to stay then we’re gonna be friends, so we might as well get a head start.”

Po gave him a hard look, apparently still not recovered from the previous questions. “Who says I’m going to stay? Shifu hasn’t made an appearance.”

“Because I said so!” Cong ran a tired hand over his face and groaned deeply. “Let’s not – let’s not talk about this in public please.”

“Where _is_ this Shifu guy anyway?” Po carried on. “If he’s your master then isn’t he supposed to be training you or something.”

“It’s complicated.” Cong said curtly, cutting the conversation to an early end.

“A _place_ is not complicated.” Po’s steps were starting to become frustrated again, probably half due to the stupid number of steps.

“No, it really is complicated.” Cong insisted. “I’m not sure myself to be honest.”

“If you’re not sure, and if I’m going to stay, then you should tell me.”

It was out of pure pity that Cong opened his mouth and answered.

“We’re pretty sure he’s visiting someone,” He started with their predictions that they’d mulled over while moving the sofa into the kitchen when Po was unconscious the first time. “and it’s complicated because this person… this person is close to death.”

Po immediately looked uncomfortable. “Oh.” Was all he said.

“He’s very old anyway, so we all knew it would happen eventually, but him and Shifu are really close, so we can’t expect him to be paying us a visit any time soon.” Cong was almost voicing his thoughts on the matter.

They’d decided, over an unconscious Po in the kitchen, that Shifu would be gone for a while. The moment he’d punched their visitor in the face he received the phone call that changed everything. Yu was adamant at first that nothing was wrong, and simply covered Po in a blanket while arguing her point. Fan had also pointed out Shifu’s track record with panicking over (what they considered) things that were very minor in the grand scheme of things. Ying was not convinced, but was still a little weirded out by being followed through the tunnel in the staff room, so didn’t say much on the matter. Jia had insisted they not worry about it, and started on his pending chore of washing the dishes. Cong still worried though, and proposed the possibility of a death. That made them think a little more, and helped everyone decide on the final prediction. They’d retreated to their rooms until Jia’s fateful shout that Po had woken up.

Cong didn’t say anything for their entire walk back. He tactfully ignored Po’s short breaths and concentrated solely on the different reasons for Shifu’s disappearance. Reasons that, still made no sense to him.

They reached the steps at the Palace on aching legs. Po was completely out of breath and sweating from the physical exertion and heat from the sun. Cong allowed him a short moment to regain strength to carry on and led him back to the house. Upon opening the front door, Po went straight past Cong to the kitchen. He heard running water and guessed Po was hydrating, so moved on to the next step in his plan. Not sure if it was going to fit or not, he rummaged around in the storage room next to the kitchen. Cong held up the old uniform and inspected it with a critical eye. The last time it had been worn was over a decade ago, but the fabric had held up, despite having been discarded in quick haste.

He handed it to Po. “Here, put this on and change your shorts to trousers.”

Po looked at it and back to him. “Is that…?”

“A Jade Palace uniform? Yes.” Cong shoved it into his lap, they didn’t really have time for this.

“Are you – are you sure it will fit?” He asked, eyes intently on the shirt, fiddling with it uncomfortably.

“The guy who had it before you was apparently built pretty large,” Cong said, not quite lying through his teeth, but also not totally sure on the truth. “and it’s _very_ old and _very_ worn, so you won’t have a problem stretching it.” That part was definitely true. Shifu didn’t share much, but they could theorise on how much it had been used.

Po still seemed uneasy, but obediently took his bag and the shirt upstairs to the bathroom. Cong took the time to leave some messages in the group chat.

_I’ve got Po a uniform and we’re gonna come in through staff entrance_

_Dibs on not training him_

**Ying:** _Dw Fan’s training him_

**Fan:** _what_

**Fan:** _since when???_

**Fan:** _this is so unfair_

**Yu:** _Don’t be so mean! Stop complaining!_

**Jia:** _But it is fair since I had to have him sleep on my floor last night as well as having to set up the mattress and Cong had to take him down to the village and babysit so yes, it is fair_

**Fan:** _that’s so stupid_

**Jia:** _Stop bitching and get on w it_

**Fan:** _i hate you_

**Jia:** _Ik ;)_

_K we’ll be there in 5_

_Don’t kill each other_

**Yu:** _W Ying you can’t guarantee_

**Ying:** _Wow I see how it is_

“Does it fit?!” Cong called up, while chuckling lightly to himself at their texting antics.

Po stepped down the stairs a little hesitantly. The shirt was definitely on the tighter side, but nothing that looked out of the ordinary. Cong nodded, it would do for a few days until they could buy another.

“Come on,” He gestured for Po to follow him and led him outside to the courtyard where he’d first been knocked out. “when we get in the Palace, I’ll give you over to Fan and he can train you.”

“What?!” Po exclaimed from behind him.

Cong jumped into the tunnel with ease. “Exactly what I said, you’re going to be trained.”

Po was hesitant at first to get in, but Cong heard the sounds of him clambering after him and carried on through the tunnel. “So does that mean… I’m hired?”

“You might as well pull your weight around here.” He explained, feeling the tunnel walls in the darkness, knowing them well enough to not need a light. “Like Yu said, we needed someone else anyway, the Palace gets really packed these days and we could use with another employee.” And Cong didn’t have to look back to know that Po was grinning.

* * *

Fan was replacing the bin liners when Cong poked him gleefully.

“Here you go,” He pushed Po towards him. “he’s all yours!” And sauntered away before Fan could say anything.

Po’s eyes darted around. “So uh – what’s first?” He was the poster child for new employee nerves, and Fan felt a little sorry for him.

“Well I’ve got these bin bags,” He pointed towards the trolley holding the five rubbish bags. “I’ve gotta take them outside, we’ll start with that.”

He wheeled them outside, invisible to the customers, and round behind the Palace where the bins were. “Do you know where Cong got you that shirt, by the way?” He asked, examining the uniform Po was wearing.

“Er, no.”

Fan’s brow furrowed in thought. Cong couldn’t have… but maybe he did?

He stopped the trolley and opened one of the giant bins. “Could you chuck these in for me? I just have to do something.”

Fan opened his phone as Po obediently started throwing in the bags.

_cong_

_where’d you get the uniform_

**Cong:** _The only other uniform we have? In storage?_

_but it’s not HIS right?_

Cong was typing. Then he wasn’t. Then he was typing again. Then he backpedalled again and Fan needed no more confirmation.

_cong please_

**Cong:** _Well…_

**Yu:** _No you didn’t…_

**Ying:** _Cong are you kidding_

**Jia:** _When Shifu gets back he’ll be so mad I hope you know that_

**Jia:** _Sorry_

**Jia:** _IF Shifu gets back_

_CONG YOU CAN’T DO THAT_

**Cong:** _Wtf was I supposed to do???_

**Yu:** _LITERALLY THAT’S SHIFU’S ONE BIG RULE_

Fan, already leaning against the side of the building, turned his phone off and pressed his forehead on the cool jade. They were going to be in so much trouble it was unbelievable. If Shifu wasn’t already, he was definitely going to kill them now. Fan sighed loudly, it was going to be funerals for everyone. Taking a moment to gather himself, he plastered on a smile and turned back to Po. He might as well be nice to the guy. No matter how many funerals, he’d not really done that much wrong.

“Hey Fan Hai?”

“Yep?”

“Whose is this shirt anyway?” Po looked at it with scrutiny. “Cong said it was someone else’s.”

Fan’s mouth went dry, and for once in his life he had no idea what to say. “It’s – it’s complicated.”

Po gave him a dry look he thought only Jia and Ying were capable of, completely done with everything and everyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Word actually lost 1k words of this chapter as I was writing it, which was seriously annoying but luckily didn't hinder my progress on getting this out on schedule
> 
> The texting formatting was so nerve-wracking for me. I've obviously never written characters texting and a group chat is a step up from that. It looks alright on my laptop, but I haven't seen it on mobile, so sorry to all my phone users out there!
> 
> Mr Ping is literally impossible to get right. Jame Hong is so talented and I everytime I give his character a line of dialogue I want to cry because I can't embody the uniqueness James Hong brings to him. So yes, you can tell that in that conversation I sort of gave up half way through. 
> 
> I promise, I _promise_ I'll finish the drug bust story. I was going to tail it on the end of this chapter but that would mean it growing to maybe 10k words, which is just too much. 
> 
> And I know everyone is eager to see Shifu, I promise that will be soon. 
> 
> Also I'd like to say that the next update I might not get out in two weeks like I've been doing. It might end up being the Friday after because I'm staying at a friend's house for the second week of August. And I'm doing research for uni and grown-up stuff like that (which I'm not mature enough for) so that's pretty time consuming. 
> 
> Thank you for the comments so far! I love hearing what you think about each chapter. So let me know what your thoughts on this one! It makes my day :)


	5. The Twitter feud

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Po hears the ending of the drug bust, and a little more than what he bagained for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tigress - Ying  
> Viper - Yu Ting  
> Crane - Jia  
> Monkey - Wu Cong  
> Mantis - Fan Hai  
> (last time alright)

Ying pushed the bowl of congee towards him. She’d steamed it, judging by the trickle of condensation running down the sides. Po picked up the spoon and looked at her, a thanks ready on his tongue.

“You wanted to hear the end of the drug bust?” She asked, sitting down opposite him.

Po could only nod.

Behind her, Wu Cong was clattering around the kitchen, fetching a wok and pairs of chopsticks, getting ready to do some amateur (in Po’s opinion) cooking. Yu Ting incessantly poked Fan Hai with a celery, telling him start dicing the vegetables, but he stayed perched on the countertop, watching something on his phone and ignoring her. Jia was snacking from a bowl of blackberries he got from the fridge, holding it close to him as he sat cross-legged on the chair next to Ying.

At hearing Ying’s statement they stopped in their tracks. Jia looked back to Yu Ting and exchanged an illegible look with her while Wu Cong and Fan Hai just shrugged at each other, bemused. Ying ignored them, and leaned forward to form a clawed hand beneath her chin with her elbow on the table, wearing a mask of utter seriousness.

“First, we backtrack…”

* * *

Ying watched the incoming forklift carefully. It wasn’t going at the greatest of speeds, but certainly quicker than crawling painstakingly slow behind the plastic racks of boxes and bruising her knees on the cement. The driver had music blaring through his earphones, so didn’t hear her clamber onto the counterweight on the back of the machine and hitch a ride. The metal weight was large enough for her to crouch comfortably and grip the two rods of the cage enclosure without falling off at the sharp turns.

Once taking her across the distance she’d been trying to cross for the past five minutes, she jumped off the forklift into an expert roll and hid behind the wooden crates she’d been aiming for. Spotting a random piece of jagged metal a few feet away, she stretched her arm out to grab it. The metal was a little sharp, so she tugged the sleeve of her hoodie over her palm and gripped it using the material. She gave the storage room a once-over, making sure no one would hear her, and started hacking away at where the wood joined to create the crate. Upon the tenth hit she was able to prize the lid off to reveal – nothing. Just metallic building parts.

Deflating, she turned to the crate next to the previous. She raised the metal to give another hit and stopped at an alert from her watch.

“ _Ying, I think I’ve found the drugs.”_ Came Yu’s whisper.

Ying dropped her make-shift knife with a clatter. “Where? Some boxes?”

“ _No, shipping containers, I’m in the same place I went to when we split up. Get over here and I’ll get on them as a vantage point.”_

Ying wanted to kick herself. Of _course_ they were in shipping containers! How could she be so blind? She’d just spent all her time in this stupid warehouse opening random boxes in the hope that she could find some trace of the drugs. Shifu had placed so much importance on finding what they needed and getting out as fast as possible, preferably with no one noticing their existence. _I’ve wasted so much time,_ she groaned inwardly.

Hitting the side of the crate in frustration and getting up, she gave Yu a shielded answer. “Thank god you found them, I’ll get there soon, stay hidden.” Her words held some truth, she _was_ very relieved at Yu completing the mission, but the knowledge that so far she’d been completely useless to their task was angering enough.

She took off at a light jog, the spacious corridors oddly devoid of guards. She supposed that must have been Fan’s doing, maybe he distracted them. As her footsteps slammed against the concrete she mused over the consequences of the success of this mission. This definitely wasn’t their biggest one, the “Weeping River” (what Cong had dubbed it as) was arguably the mission that defined their little… group. Ying wasn’t quite sure what to call them. Friends? No, she wasn’t the most experienced with social interactions but she was sure that friends didn’t go on undercover missions together. Team? Sure, alright. That had to do, there wasn’t any other way to –

_BANG!_

Ying stopped her running and inhaled sharply, feeling as if she was going to choke. Everything had gone silent, and only the echo of the gun shot could be heard in her ears. The shock had frozen her physically, but mentally her brain was working at horrific speeds. A gun shot could mean many things. The first to come to mind was that a guard had fired at her teammate and missed. It wasn’t too far-fetched, these guards only seemed like amateurs, and a gun needed good aim. The second was that one of her teammates (most likely Cong) stole one of the guns and shot it at a guard who got too close for comfort. But that in itself was pretty unlikely, they were good enough at kung fu that weapons weren’t a necessity, and Shifu had always drilled in the importance of not relying on them anyway. The final possibility was that one of them was shot. Maybe injured, maybe dead. They’d only been together for a year or so, but after living with the best people she’d ever met, she couldn’t imagine her life without them.

She raised her watch. “Yu? Are you there?” It was only a whisper, a small glimmer of hope that her worst fear was not real. “Yu Ting?”

Some fumbling could be heard on the other end, and Ying almost broke down there and then.

“ _I’m fine_!” Came a breathless voice. “ _It wasn’t me_.” Yu sounded even worse for wear than she was judging by the short sniffs.

Ying nodded, forgetting that Yu couldn’t see her. “Okay, okay… I was – worried.” She said finally, not finding the right words. “Do you know what happened?”

The line went silent for a moment. “ _I have no idea.”_

Suspense was never something Ying could deal with. “Hold in there, I’m coming.”

She took off again at a run, much more urgent than before. It was almost a minute of paranoid worrying before someone called her name.

“YING!” She turned at Cong’s voice. “No one got shot!” He waved his arms slightly hysterically, and she suspected that under the mask his expression would show immense relief she knew she felt in that moment. “Everyone’s okay!”

“Holy _shit_.” Ying actually bent over as if regaining her breath, hands on her knees and her head hung down. “I’d imagined the worst.” She rubbed a hand under her mask, clearing her head of the anxious thoughts.

Cong seemed out of breath too. “I know, I was watching it on CCTV. The _scariest_ thing I’ve ever had to see.”

She breathed, straightened and looked him in the eye. “We need to get to Yu, she’s found the drugs.”

Cong nodded along, more to himself than her. “Okay, alright… oh I’m just so glad we’re all _alive_!” He exclaimed, and wrapped his arms around her in relief. 

Ying stiffened at the hug. She wasn’t the best with displays of affection, Shifu wasn’t necessarily a hugger, therefore she was incredibly inexperienced in that field. As awkward as it was, she simply talked her way out of it. “I’m glad too, but let’s not speak too soon, we’re not out yet.”

He let her go with a concealed smile. “Let me be optimistic Ying,” He said fondly. “come one, let’s go!”

They both set off at a less hurried run. “You got a plan?” Cong yelled to her over the loud sounds of their shoes on the concrete.

“Um – no –“ She panted, stuttering over what to say. “no not really!”

He looked at her. “So we just… improvise?” Despite the situation, she wanted to smile, Cong just happened to _get_ her sometimes, in that way that Shifu really couldn’t.

They turned a corner and Ying took a breath to speak. “Yeah – we improvise.”

“And – what about – staying – _oh my god there’s too much running_ – staying hidden?” Cong clutched at his side as he wheezed out his words.

Reaching the entrance doors to where Yu was, they stumbled to a halt.

“I think it’s a bit late to stay hidden.” She muttered. “Everyone must’ve heard that gun shot, and word would have got round that CCTV was infiltrated.”

“Well,” Cong adjusted his mask and hoodie. “we’ve lasted this long, right? Might as well get the job done, they won’t see our faces.”

She put two hands on the metal bar on one of the doors. “The goal is to help Yu fight those guards, then get out as quick as possible, got it?”

Cong nodded and put his hands on the bar of the other door. “Got it, on three?” She swallowed, preparing herself. “One, two… three!”

Simultaneously they pushed hard down on the metal and the huge doors flew open, revealing the largest part of the warehouse and almost fifty guards.

For a second the two sides just stared at each other. Fifty heads turned their way and fifty pairs of beady eyes did nothing except widen. Ying and Cong had frozen. They had _not_ expected this many of them.

“I swear there were half as many when I watched on CCTV…” Cong whispered out the corner of his mouth to her.

“Doesn’t matter,” She replied breathlessly, still looking straight ahead. “we just have to-“

The rest of her words were cut off by the doors opposite them, on the other side of the warehouse, opening abruptly to reveal the two figures who could only be Jia and Fan. The heads whipped back towards the other two, the same time as Yu stood up suddenly from the top of a shipping container exposing herself to the crowd and taking a hesitant stance. Ying hadn’t seen her previously, and apparently neither had the guards since a few looked over to her with alarm. Ying nudged Cong and, in an understanding between them, they both ran towards the shipping containers and roundhouse-kicked the two guards closest to them while everyone was distracted. This was the moment everything set off.

From then on it was pandemonium.

A guard climbed up to the shipping container with surprising strength and Yu was quick to kick him down, straight into Ying’s arms, who swung his body with all her might into the next guard approaching her. It was hazy, but out of the corner of her eye she could blurrily see Fan taking three guards on at once, hitting them with precise punches and kicks, exactly in the spots that rendered them helpless and in immense pain. Cong had jumped onto the shoulders of a particularly tall guard and used him as a springboard to get up to Yu. Jia deflected all the blows headed his way and ran with lighting speed over to Ying to give her a hand with a particularly large guard.

The large man fell to the ground with a groan and Ying readied herself to get up the containers when something interrupted the chaos.

The sound of sirens blared outside and everyone froze mid-fight. Quick to react, Yu and Cong jumped down and Fan threw off the guard previously trying to wrestle him and ran to be with them. They huddled, backs facing each other and in defensive stances. Within only a few seconds later the huge, electric doors used to give lorries a way in opened and a hoard of policemen stood ready with tasers.

“Hell.”

“Shit.”

“Fuck.”

“Just great…”

She heard Yu, Cong, Fan and Jia mutter. The guards around them immediately held their hands up in surrender, and they could do nothing except stay still for fear of getting shot. Ying really didn’t want to fight with the police, the thought of getting arrested was obviously not alluring but she also didn’t want to be on the receiving end of a taser, or even worse, a shooter who could actually aim right.

As if it couldn’t get any worse, a harried group of journalists and accompanying paparazzi burst in. They had elbows of steel, and made their way across to them as if their lives depended on it. Cameras were flashing, policemen were yelling, guards were running, this was the last straw for Ying.

Furiously, she ran towards the camera held in her face and raised her fist, ready to punch the living daylights out of it. Either side of her, Fan and Cong seemed to know exactly what she was about to do. They grabbed both her arms and pulled her back against them and away from the reporters, even suspending her, stopping her running feet. Still blind with anger, she took them by surprise and leaned right back into them and kicked the camera, smashing the front lens and bruising the man holding it. The regret lived momentarily as the other journalists went mad, with fear or with excitement that she injured one of their own and it would make a great story, she didn’t know.

Her friends telepathically decided that enough was enough, and dragged her away.

“Ying we need to leave!” Fan hissed in her ear, only loud enough for her to hear. “Calm down!”

She regained her usual stability of emotions, the anger leaving her fast, and nodded. All at once, they set off at a fast run. The guards, journalists and even the policemen split like the red sea, giving them a miraculous path to leave. Once out, they legged it for the car, jumping in and slamming every door in a way that would make Shifu wince. The exit they took suddenly flooded with the inhabitants of the warehouse, yelling and shouting threats. Fan revved up the car with urgency, luckily not fumbling with the keys despite his nerves.

“GO GO GO!”

“KEEP GOING!”

“JUST GET OUT OF HERE!”

“FULL SPEED!”

Fan gripped the wheel tight and skidded across the car park at a speed that was definitely illegal. In his panic to get out as fast as possible, he drove over the upwards-slanting grassy bank, causing the whole car to fly in mid-air for a split-second as the bank acted as a sort of ramp. They all screamed as the horrible sensation of their bodies leaving the seats hit them. Seat belts were not a luxury they’d had time for. Ying gripped the handle above the passenger seat window, and put a hand out incase the airbag decided to blow out and injure her. Despite the terrifying flying car experience, they made it on the road with a harsh bump causing everyone’s heads to jerk forward painfully. Fan was quick to slow down after that.

For a moment, only their heavy breathing could be heard.

They still had the masks on. Their hoods were still up. No one was injured.

Ying recovered from the shock first and tore off her mask and hood, letting down her short hair and also doing up her seatbelt. “Is everyone alright?” She asked, her hair starting to curl around her face and get caught in her dry mouth.

Yu did the same, and started the more time-consuming process of taking her long hair out of their two buns. “I’m fine,” She replied, her voice hoarse. “I just want to know what that gunshot was.” In the rearview mirror, Ying could see her peer round at the others.

Jia held up a hand. “The guard was aiming for me, but I knocked it out his hand just as he shot it, so I’m good.” He said, almost casually, also taking off his mask.

Yu blinked at him like he’d insulted her. “Jia you can’t be casual like this!” She exclaimed hysterically.

“Here we go…” Fan muttered to Ying.

“You could have _died_ and you’re pretending as if you’re unaffected!”

“I’m fine, Yu.”

“Honestly, he is,” Cong chimed in from the seat next to him. “me and Fan were watching it on CCTV. It was scary, but he is completely fine.”

“This is serious!” Yu insisted, ignoring Cong and hitting Jia’s shoulder in frustration. “I was so worried!”

“Okay I’m sorry,” He said, locking eyes with her, his calm demeanour seeming to help Yu out a little. “but we really should be worrying about the fact that the press saw us.”

“That part’s not that bad though.” Cong pointed out nonchalantly.

Ying gasped and twisted herself round to face him, as much as her seatbelt would allow. “Are you kidding me? We’ll be all over the news! They’re probably looking for us now!” 

Cong carried on with utter seriousness. “But we were wearing masks, there’s no face they can search for.”

“He has point actually,” Fan said. “remember I covered the licence plate? They’ve literally got no leads on us.”

Ying sat back and looked at the sky in front. “That’s – that’s true.” She muttered.

“So we shouldn’t be worrying!” Jia said triumphantly and turned to Yu. “Right Yu? Yu Ting?”

Ying looked round and saw that Yu had her arms crossed. “Next time there’s weapons, we need to have better communication.” She said thickly.

“I didn’t mean to worry you, and in my defence, I didn’t know everyone could actually hear the gun, ” Ying almost rolled her eyes at Jia, he was never sentimental, she much preferred his dry, snarky humour over the softer side of him. The guilt-tripping from Yu seemed to make him actually have sympathy. “I’m sorry, I’ll make it up to you when we get back.” He said sincerely.

Fan seemed to be thinking along the same lines and stuck his tongue out to her playfully as a show of disgust. She grinned and did the same, adding an exaggerated finger pointed towards her mouth. Cong caught her eye in the rear-view mirror and made a childish gagging sound, causing them both to laugh silently. Jia simply ignored them, putting in his earphones and leaning his head back on the headrest. Yu was stubbornly looking out the window, but Ying couldn’t be worried, she was always quick to bounce back from things like this.

“Oh shit the licence plate!” Fan swore suddenly, slowing down the car onto the side of the road. “I need to uncover it before we get a ticket, hold on…”

* * *

Po’s jaw dropped, the mouthful of congee he was about to swallow stayed stationary in his mouth. “Whoa.”

“Whoa indeed!” Fan Hai remarked loudly, still sitting on the counter and dangling his legs above the floor.

“It sounds like you were in an action movie.” Po said, staring off into the distance, picturing their inconspicuous black car suspended in mid-air as numerous policemen chased them. “Like a car chase!”

“It wasn’t _that_ cool,” Jia raised an eyebrow at him. “I mean, sure, exhilarating, but more scary than cool.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Wu Cong said in a stage-whisper while rummaging around in the cupboard for sauces. “it was really cool!”

Yu Ting placed a hand over her heart. “Cong is being ridiculous, I don’t think I’ve watched any horror movie that got my heart racing as much as that moment in the car did.”

“Blame that on Fan’s driving.” Ying smirked behind her phone.

“Oh alright miss ‘I’m so good at everything’! You don’t even drive!” Fan made big quotation marks in the air and jumped off the counter to mess up her hair with his fingers while she just sniggered, not bothering to fix it.

Po blinked in surprise at her. “You don’t drive?”

She deflected quickly. “Do you?”

“No but,” He frowned at her. “isn’t that like a huge liability? You know, if you need a quick getaway you can’t just jump in a car, you need someone else to drive it for you.”

There was a beat of silence before Jia, who was making his way out the door having finished the blackberries, burst into the first genuine bout of laughter Po had heard from him. He leaned against the doorway, laughing so hard he started turning red. Yu Ting joined in with her own giggles while Fan Hai and Wu Cong whooped gleefully, both coming to pat Po on the back and applaud.

“He really – _really_ put you in your place!” Jia pointed at Ying, shaking his head and still trembling with laughter.

Ying, who was not amused in the slightest, glared at him. “I will take your hat I swear to god.”

He just laughed at her even harder. “I don’t even care, that was too funny!” He clapped his hands together and slid down the wall, unable to hold himself up.

Ying looked to Yu Ting, supposedly for support.

She just covered her mouth with her hands and giggled. “I mean – where’s the lie though?” She said quietly, to the roaring laughter of Fan Hai and Wu Cong.

“Did you seriously quote that from Twitter?” Ying growled at her.

Confusion was an understatement if Po had to be honest. _Why_ they found his statement so funny was up for debate, but he guessed it was from another invisible inside joke (he _really_ needed to start asking about these inside jokes). They had him stumped.

“What’s your thing with Twitter? You guys seem to mention it a lot.” Po asked, looking round to Fan Hai and Wu Cong who, luckily for him, were now stopping with their incessant laughing.

Wu Cong cleared his throat with a chuckle. “Well, that’s another interesting story!”

“Not really a story but rather a collection of events that we think of very fondly.” Fan Hai closed his eyes in appreciation.

From where he was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, Jia wiped his eyes and made a face at them. “Fond is one way to put it.” His tone hadn’t quite gone back to the usual cold monotony, still holding mirth from his recent dying of laughter.

“It’s probably something you remember Po…” Fan Hai said, starting to trail off into another story.

* * *

Yu slid the newspaper across the kitchen table. “I had to go out to get cat food, and I find we’re in the goddamn paper!” She exclaimed angrily, hitting the table for emphasis.

Fan almost spilled his tea over it in his surprise. “What?!” He spluttered, and snatched it up.

**MYSTERIOUS GROUP SPOTTED DURING DRUG BUST**

“Oh shit…” He muttered, skimming through the article, eyes stopping on the huge photo.

It was incredibly blurry, yet so clear as the experience was still fresh in his mind. It showed a three masked figures in black. Two holding one in the middle with her foot outstretched towards the camera. Well, _his_ foot, according to the article.

Ying burst through the door, phone in hand, and looking absolutely crazed. “Have you seen the news?”

“I think everyone and their dog has seen it, considering we made the front page.” Fan swivelled the paper to her so she could read it.

She exhaled loudly at the sight, pressing a hand to her face. “It’s online as well, not just a local thing.”

“This is so bad!” Yu grabbed the newspaper from him. “They can’t just come in and start taking photos and putting us in the news when we’re literally doing a good thing!”

The sound of Cong thundering down the stairs made her stop ranting. “GUYS DID YOU READ THE NEWS?!” He yelled through the walls, running into the kitchen and brandishing his phone. “Shifu’s gonna kill us for getting caught!” His eyes were wild and, by the looks of it, he’d just woken up. “Oh this is _so_ bad…”

Fan took his phone and turned it off. “Don’t panic! We just need to stay calm, you said it yourself, they couldn’t see our faces!” He put two hands on his shoulders and shook him to get his point across.

Fan didn’t quite believe it himself. On the bright side, he didn’t know anyone who truly cared about the news unless it was about some celebrity getting plastic surgery or breaking up with a partner. But now that this was on the internet it was there forever, there was no getting rid of the visible proof of their extremely secret operation. He shuddered to think of how Shifu would punish them for getting caught.

Jia walked into the chaos, calm and collected as ever. “I assume you read the news for once.” He stated.

“ _Yes_!” They all exclaimed in varying angry and panicked tones.

“I honestly don’t think we have to worry about it-“

“Are you mad?!” Ying looked at him as if he were deranged. “WE’RE EVERYWHERE!”

“But everywhere they think we’re five teenaged to young adult _males_ who live locally to the warehouse.” He said as if it was obvious.

Fan stood up, pointing at Jia. “He’s got a point – no, seriously Ying, he’s got a point.” He said thoughtfully. “China is huge. We’re three guys and two _girls_ very loosely in the age-bracket they’re heading for. Chances are, they won’t find us.”

Yu nodded slowly at his explanation. “Yes… we _have_ got a good cover story, working at the Palace.”

Cong plopped himself down on a chair. “Yeah… yeah you’re right – we shouldn’t worry.”

Fan looked at Ying expectantly, who only sighed in defeat, her frown lines leaving her face. “Shifu will still punish us, but you do make a good point Fan Hai.” He smiled in satisfaction at winning her over, to which her lips quirked up slightly.

“So what are we -“ Jia started in the comfortable silence that settled over their meagre breakfast.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Cong exclaimed, his nose buried in his phone.

Yu groaned loudly over her bao. “Oh what now…”

“This is how they describe us: tall, short, muscular, furious and of _average fucking height_!” He shook his phone in their faces. “I’m the same height as Ying! How come she got a cool description?”

“Because she injured a camera man.” Jia muttered into his teacup.

Fan, however, suddenly got the large ego-boost his self-esteem needed. “ _Muscular_? Is that how people see me?” He said proudly. “Well I guess the killer workouts paid off huh?” He flexed his bicep at Cong to prove his point and simultaneously tease.

“You _bastard_!” Cong whacked his arm out of his face darkly. “We’re pretty much almost the same anyway! It’s only ‘cause you’re taller than me!”

“But I’m still the tallest.” Jia said smugly.

“And I will forever be the shortest.” Yu huffed.

“And apparently I have anger issues.” Ying remarked.

A light chuckle went round the room at that. Even in the dire states they were in, they could still joke around. The comfortable silence passed over again, and only the sounds of eating could be heard. Fan had to have a secret smile, he forgot how nice it was to just sit with his friends and enjoy some food. In between secret missions and rebellious, wild sessions of skinny-dipping and games of truth or dare, it was relaxing to just bathe in company.

* * *

“Okay but where’s the Twitter part?” Po interrupted impatiently. Fan Hai was really taking his sweet time with this story.

While narrating extensively, he’d made his way onto the table, lying across it on his back.

He turned his head and looked up giving Po a death glare. “Oh my god I’m _getting there_ , you’re worse than Ying honestly…”

“I was just saying that-“

“So then the next day…!” Wu Cong interjected loudly.

* * *

Cong slammed his phone down on the living room rug. “We’re trending on Twitter!” He proclaimed triumphantly.

Jia gave a long, loud, over-exaggerated groan and Yu paused the K-drama they’d been streaming on the TV. Ying and Fan looked up from their game of xianqi (one where he was sure Ying was losing horribly).

Cong pointed at his phone. “Look! They made us into a hashtag!”

“The… Furious Five?” Fan read out, perplexed.

“Is that what they’re calling us now?” Ying asked, unimpressed.

“You have to hand it to them,” Yu shrugged, sliding off the sofa and onto the floor. “they made up a whole name for us over Ying’s anger issues.”

“Yeah but it’s a bit shit.” Jia said with slight disdain. “And this is coming from _Twitter._ ”

Cong blinked at him. “What’s wrong with Twitter?”

Jia looked at him as if it were obvious. “It’s social media just for typing out any thought you have in the moment and projecting that onto the small percentage of the general public who actually still use it and whatever Instagram meme page who wants to steal it. It’s basically a goldmine for cancelling celebrities and those stupid enough to expose their inner-racist.”

Yu frowned, a little confused but seeming convinced nonetheless. “I mean – I guess you’re right, but I still think trending on Twitter is kinda-“

“Cool?” Fan suggested. “I think it’s cool!”

“Guys, we’re not celebrities…” Ying said boredly, looking back at the xianqi board.

“Oh come on Ying, enjoy our trending status while it still lasts!” Fan said happily.

Jia reached over Yu for the remote. “I still don’t like it, we don’t want to turn into a social media phenomena…”

Cong shook his head in shame, how were they friends again? “You’re so boring and so wrong about Twitter.”

“The only thing I’m looking forward to is the conspiracy theories. “ Yu shrugged.

Cong gasped. “Oh I can’t _wait_ -!”

* * *

“Wait a second,” Po held his hands up, stopping Wu Cong abruptly. “the sofa used to be in the living room? Where it makes _sense_? Since when did it get in here?”

“All that and you’re worried about the _sofa_?” Fan Hai looked at him incredulously. “Again, how fucking hard did Shifu hit you?”

“Actually, the sofa got moved in the kitchen when you got knocked out.” Yu Ting piped up, appearing unaffected by the absurdity of having a sofa in a tiny kitchen.

Po was baffled, it made no sense. “Uhh – why?”

“Shifu knocked you out, then made me drag you to the living room and onto the sofa.” Ying smiled wryly to herself.

Once again, Ying surprised him. “Wow… you’re strong.” He breathed, and she just nodded in affirmation.

“Then Cong decided he was hungry and Jia needed to do the dishes,” Yu Ting continued. “and we were told to keep an eye on you, so we carried the sofa in here.”

“With me on it?”

“Well we couldn’t just throw you off,” Cong commented as if they were functioning on high logic. “and besides, you looked so peaceful sleeping.”

They seemed to have this effect on him a lot. Rendering him speechless and unable to think straight with their ridiculous and laughable antics. Adding sentimental to that was the part that really got his mind lost in the void. They didn’t want to wake him up. _That’s sweet of them._ So they went through the labour of moving the sofa with him on it, through the length of the hallway and into the kitchen.

“And it’s still here because we need to buy you a chair, we’ve only got five.” Jia chimed in, still on the floor.

A smile started to form on Po’s face.

The sound of the front door unlocking sent a fresh wave of emotion through them.

Fan Hai slid off from the tabletop immediately and went to stand with Cong, who had backed away from Po quickly. Jia shot up from where he was crouching, and stood in the darkened corner of the kitchen, pulling his strange rice hat down slightly. Yu Ting hid her phone under the table and shifted her chair towards Ying, away from Po. Ying straightened as if she’d been electrocuted, and the content smile sitting on her lips disappeared completely to be replaced with her usual face of stone.

The door slammed shut and slow footsteps made their way towards the kitchen. Po opened his mouth to ask what the hell was going on when Yu Ting pressed a finger to her lips in a shushing gesture. She shook her head, motioning that now was not the time. The footsteps got closer and closer, and Po felt himself filling with nothing but dread.

The door opened and there stood… Shifu.

He scowled at the sight of Po. “Leave us, I need to talk to him.”

Almost instantly, the others left the room, taking with them the warmth that was starting to get to Po’s bones. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a day late... but a week earlier than I thought it would be! 
> 
> 1\. A lot of this chapter is me making fun of some of the more ridiculous features of this story lol (e.g. why the sofa is in the kitchen, why Ying doesn't drive etc)  
> 2\. I wrote the first scene with Ying's side of the drug bust when I wrote the other POVs, so yes they do line up :)  
> 3\. I went through the pain of seaching for the anatomy of a forklift to only use my knowledge for a single sentence. Can we get an F in the chat  
> 4\. (yes pandemonium was a pun and you can rip the puns I'm about to use from my cold dead hands)  
> 5\. I'm trying to include litle easter eggs (such as repeated dialogue) because they make me laugh  
> 6\. Also I just wanna say that I'm not trying to take a stand on how I feel about Twitter, I think it's funny lol  
> 7\. I've been impulsively writing tiny scenes that may or may not make the final cut into the chapters they're intended for because they're either pointless filler or just draw out conversations a little too much for how I feel the pacing should go. So if I garner enough of these I might do a seperate story for bloopers/cut scenes/outtakes, sound good? 
> 
> Let me know what you think of this chapter! And thank you for the reviews and the continued interest in this story! (also my author's notes are getting out of hand lmao)


	6. Snake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Po meets Shifu and things go haywire with Ying.

Shifu was the spitting image of any whimsical kung fu master. Unlike his students, he was actually wearing kung fu uniform although having just come through the doorway to his… home? Did he live here? Probably not, so why was he dressed like a master? It wasn’t exactly a fashion statement. Perhaps it was to show his status, the attire was nothing like what Po had seen the others wearing, the brown robe tied loosely round his middle was certainly not common. He looked, Po thought, a little like a monk. He wondered briefly if he was, maybe, taking kung fu further than his students.

Po didn’t exactly know what to expect from Shifu, their first meeting wasn’t ideal, but he definitely didn’t think he’d be on the receiving end of a cold, hard glare of pure disgust. Consciously, he wilted under the gaze, and succumbed to his terrible habit of fidgeting with his fingers.

“What are you still doing here.” The question was said in the tone of a statement, one growled out in barely hidden anger.

Po opened his mouth, then closed it when realising how stupid his excuse was. “The others said – said that they needed to… keep me.”

“And you listened to those idiots?”

“Hey!” Po frowned, that philosophy made no sense, Shifu was their teacher, and if they were idiots then wasn’t that just the mark of a lousy teacher? “I couldn’t just leave when they were telling me to keep their secret!”

Shifu shook his head in the way of a disappointed parent and began to pace the kitchen, hands still clasped tightly behind his back. “There is not much of a secret, intruder.”

“I have a name you know.” Po crossed his arms over in defiance, finding it extremely offensive that he’d just been called ‘intruder’ over something more polite.

Shifu spun round and all breath in Po’s lungs left him when he was fixed with the deadliest of eyes. “I – don’t – _care._ You and your name mean _nothing_ to me.” He hissed.

Po could do nothing but nod.

Shifu straightened. “I command what happens in this house, and I say that you leave immediately.”

In a rare moment of bravery, Po stood up. “No! I’m not leaving!”

Shifu’s eyes flashed. “What did you say?”

“I said, I’m not leaving!”

He raised his fist in a lightning fast movement and Po flinched away, crashing into the chair he’d previously occupied. “Why not?! You have no idea of what we do here!”

Po scrambled back to his feet. “Yes I do!” He yelled back. “I know they’re the Furious Five and you’re their master!” He pointed upstairs angrily and then at Shifu, whose face had morphed into one of complete shock.

It stayed shocked for a short moment, until he scowled, even baring his teeth. Suddenly, Shifu had a vice-like grip on Po’s arm and forcefully twisted his body round. He pushed him face down on the floor and held his arm behind his back in a lock of sorts. Po could only wriggle and move his head to the side to avoid squashing his face on the floor. Shifu was a _lot_ stronger than Po had anticipated. Obviously knocking him out took some strength, but that was just one punch. This was a whole violent kung fu move with a _hugely_ unfair age gap, with Po theoretically having the upper hand – but that upper hand was completely useless because of how weak he was.

“How long have you been spying on us?!” He shook Po violently by the back of his shirt collar. “What have you been doing intruder?!”

Something hard hit into the back of his neck, shooting a dull pain up to his skull and down his spine.

“I just figured it out!” He managed to squeak out in between his forehead bouncing off the floorboards.

Shifu let go of his collar, leaving his face to smash down without the support. He breathed deeply, it could have been disappointment – or perhaps contemplation. Po suddenly felt very scared.

“Please don’t kill me.” He uttered in the silence.

“What do you have to live for, intruder?”

Po turned his head to see Shifu peering down at him with a raised eyebrow. Almost teasing, but also knowing.

“A lot.” He replied stubbornly.

Shifu bent down so they were almost nose-to-nose. “ _Liar_.”

Po glared at him. “So what? I don’t want to die like this.”

“You are weak, fat and unfit, you are no use to us.”

The insults were a little below the belt, but Po couldn’t show any vulnerability. “I never said I was useful.”

Shifu simply hummed in response. His face still held disdain, but he said no more.

The heavy forearm holding him down disappeared. And he was gone within a swish of his robes.

* * *

“Shifu’s gonna eat him alive…” Fan muttered.

Once banished from the kitchen, they rushed up to Yu’s room to eavesdrop. It was directly above the kitchen, with blessedly thin flooring and gaps in the floorboards. Shifu’s voice carried well through the house and even Po’s squeaks were audible.

“Should we go down and do something?” Yu fidgeted nervously with her hair, twisting it round her fingers and chewing slightly on the ends. A bad habit she never got out of. “I feel like we should say something-“

“No way,” Jia said firmly, ear pressed to the floor in concentration. “Shifu hasn’t even said anything yet, we don’t want to get punished for getting in the middle of it.”

“I don’t know…” Cong said slowly. “Shifu looked dead serious.”

Fan shook his head. “Yeah but he always looks dead-“

“Shush!” Ying hissed. “They’re talking.”

“And you listened to those idiots?” Came Shifu’s voice, devoid of mirth and full of badly disguised disgust.

Cong gasped in outrage, taking the comment to heart. “Did he just call us _idiots_?!”

“I think he’s just referring to you mate.” Fan remarked, and smirked at Cong’s face of offense.

Jia ignored them, still listening intently. “We should have filled him in, he’s trying to convince Po we’re not the Furious Five.” He said quietly.

“He’s desperate to get rid of Po,” Yu shook her head with a grimace. “which is understandable, but kind of rude as well…”

Their voices got louder. Filled with anger and fuelled by frustration.

“Thank god he changed out the uniform,” Ying muttered, then blinked in deep thought, with the others simply watching her. “if he hadn’t then Shifu would definitely… “ She faltered, frowning. “well - it would end badly.”

They nodded in solemn agreement.

“I said, I’m not leaving!”

A simultaneous wide-eyed look to the floor. “What?!” They all spluttered.

“Did I hear that right?”

“Yes, dude wants to stay.”

“Have we really been that welcoming?”

“He must be desperate.”

The following shouting made the floor quake, as if feeling the anger emanating from the kitchen and trembling in anticipation of their next moves. Then there was a pause and a moment of deadly silence where no one had the bravery to breathe.

Then the sound of a body hitting the floor.

Yu started immediately and jumped up. “Shifu knocked him out!” She exclaimed, looking like she was ready to run down and fight Shifu herself. 

“Sit _down,_ ” Jia quickly looped both arms around her waist and tugged her back to the floor to hear what was going on.

She fell into his lap with an annoyed grunt and promptly threw his arms off. “Can you stop this habit of _manhandling_ me?!”

Ying, Fan and Cong gave them alarmed looks, momentarily forgetting of the scene taking place below them.

“Care to elaborate?” Fan raised an expecting eyebrow while Cong had to hold back a laugh.

“Don’t encourage them,” Ying closed her eyes in exaggerated pain. “I don’t wanna know.”

“Ew Ying! Don’t say it like that! I’m imagining the worst!” Cong said loudly in mock disgust.

Jia idly smacked Cong upside the head. “Listen! They’re still talking.”

“Have you been spying on us?! What have you been doing intruder?!”

“I just figured it out!”

Jia looked up to Ying pointedly. “There you go, an answer to your question.”

She shook her head. “He must be lying.”

“Why are you so sure of that?”

“I can usually tell when people are lying.” She said seriously.

He raised an eyebrow sceptically and couldn’t help but scoff at the irony. “No… no you can’t.”

Ying’s eyes were blazing and opened her mouth.

“OKAY!” Yu put her hands between them as if to cut away at the tension and turned to Jia. “can you stop antagonising her?”

“No I wanna see them fight,” Fan nodded his head towards them, egging them on. “keep going! I’m on team Ying!”

Ying ignored them and straightened, challenging him. “Okay then, tell me _one_ thing you’ve lied about that I haven’t figured out.”

“ _Please_ don’t do this oh my _god_ …” Yu covered her face with her hands in disappointment.

Jia started to shake in cruel chuckles. “Oh there are _so_ many things!” He said in a stage whisper, knowing it would annoy her.

Ying’s face was thunderous. “Like what?”

He smirked. “On one of our missions we had to –“

Yu clapped a hand over Jia’s mouth. “Shut up. Seriously, shut the hell up.”

He grabbed her wrist and tugged it away to show his impish smile. “You really think I was going to say anything?”

“Oh please, you really think I’m so easily embarrassed,” She said in direct conflict with her red-spattered cheeks. “I just don’t want you and Ying to fight because we all know she’d win.”

A low whistle-turned-to-laugh came from Cong. “She _dragged_ you!” He cackled as if it was the funniest thing.

“HA! Should’ve kept your mouth shut!” Fan joined in, to which Jia narrowed his eyes.

“Funny, yeah real funny, _certainly_ not an old insult.” He muttered darkly.

In the conundrum they didn’t notice Ying slip out the room.

She made her way down the hall and sat at the top of the stairs. From there she could get a small opening and a view of the front door. And just as she suspected, Shifu made a stormy beeline for it, releasing the cold breeze of the night into the entrance hall. It shut with an angry slam.

A groan came almost instantly from the kitchen, followed by a string of swear words. Ying pursed her lips, Shifu can’t have injured him that badly. Perhaps he was just weak. _Weak and stupid._ She didn’t even bother to berate her insulting conscious. Their house guest had not proved himself to be worthy of keeping. She waited patiently until the sound of slow and heavy footsteps got closer. Po tottered out with clear defeat and a bruise on the back of his neck. She half-expected him to follow Shifu’s path, it wouldn’t surprise her, by the sounds of it (and his stumbling gait) their conversation was nowhere near friendly.

But instead he turned right, heading towards the bottom of the stairs. Completely silent, she tip-toed down the steps and stood there, ready to talk to him. _Talk to him about what? What do I want to-_

He was taken aback by her, judging by his shocked gasp and the way he jumped. “Ying! Oh, I didn’t see you there.” She didn’t bother mentioning that it was dark and the lights were off.

They were in such close proximity that she could see the reflection of his white teeth from the moonlight streaming through the window and hear his heavy breathing. She also realised they were the same height. That was funny.

“You want to stay here.” She stated.

He simply blinked. The small slither of light from the moon caught his eyes as they wandered over her face before catching himself quickly. She could have laughed, his examination was not rude, it boarded on tame compared to the lingering stares her face caught when walking out on the streets.

“Well?”

“Yes.” His voice was hoarse, scratchy.

His eyes continued to flick from her mouth to her nose to her ears and back again to her own eyes.

“Why?”

He had to have a reason. More of a reason than just wanting to work at the Palace. Surely he had a whole life left behind, one with familiarity and not the constant impending knowledge of danger. Cong had relayed the information he’d learnt to her. He worked in his dad’s noodle shop, with a pretty good position. He was taking a gap year, so of course ready to go to university. He probably had other friends in the city who were definitely missing his presence. So why stay here?

“You know why.” Was all he said, before he pushed past her.

She flung her arm out to stop him, impulsiveness taking over. “You don’t belong here.” His shoulder was flush against hers, and he faced towards the stairs while she stood the opposite way. She felt him tense at her words.

“Yeah I know, it’s the bottom of the stairs.” He responded sarcastically, glaring at her over his shoulder.

“No,” She turned round to face him properly. “I mean you don’t belong here, with us.”

Po audibly swallowed.

“You have no idea what we do.”

“You’ve explained a fair amount.”

“There’s a lot we left out.”

“Like what?”

“Stuff you should never know.”

“Try me.”

“I’d rather not.”

He’d taken a step closer to her, and both their voices had reduced to whispers. It was almost pitch black now, and even when it was darker she could see his eyes glimmering. She only had to lift her arm up to touch her cold fingers to the back of his neck. He started at her touch, letting out a hushed gasp.

“You’ve got a bruise.” She whispered.

“Shifu,” His own whisper came rough, as if he was struggling to keep a composure. “he didn’t go easy on me.”

She pressed her fingers to the tender skin with intention, her cold hand should do enough to heal it slightly. He’d still need an ice pack, but this would do. “He had good reason to, you did spy on me after all.”

He stepped even closer. “Can we put that behind us?”

She paused, feeling his own hand snaking up her arm. “No.” She bit out.

_What is he -?_

Then he leaned into her, eyes sliding closed.

And her hand grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him away, twisting him round and pushing him face-down to the floor.

In hindsight, it was a lot more violent than she anticipated it being.

“ _FUCKING_ HELL!” He yelled out in pain.

Not wasting a moment longer, she ran up the stairs, colliding with Fan so hard she stumbled, loosing her balance and falling to the floor.

“Jesus Ying!” He exclaimed loudly, fumbling to find the light switch. “Where were you?” He asked.

She didn’t say anything and waited until the light finally clicked on.

“I was looking for-“ Fan started, then looked at her with alarm. “What happened?!”

She blinked. “Nothing.” Her throat was dry.

His face turned dark. “Something happened.”

“Nothing.” She repeated.

“Was is Shifu?”

She stayed silent again. Did her face really show that much emotion? She wasn’t exactly in shock. And neither was she traumatised. Her mental state only really consisted of kicking herself for being so… rude to their house guest. Well, the violence was almost inevitable considering she was at her wit’s end with Po. But she instantly regretted what she said to him. How could she be so mean? God, she could be such a dick sometimes.

Ying just glared at Fan, and started to gather herself to stand up.

“Are you alright?” Came Cong’s voice, coming out of Yu’s room.

She huffed. “Yes I’m fine!”

“Then what were you doing?” Cong questioned. “You just… left.”

A low groan came from the bottom of the stairs and she couldn’t stop her eyes shifting guiltily.

Fan gaped at her and pointed in the direction of the noise. “Did you do that?”

She looked at the ceiling and exhaled. “I didn’t _mean_ to…”

“Ying!” Cong grabbed his head with disbelief.

“Oh for fuck’s sake…” Fan muttered, looking down the stairs.

“This is why they call us the Furious Five!” Cong exclaimed. “Shit like this keeps happening!”

“But I didn’t mean to!” She retorted, getting tired of their exclamations. “It just… happened!” She knew her explanation was pathetic, but she also knew that if Fan and Cong got wind of what had caused her to body-slam Po to the floor then he’d be injured to the point of needing a wheelchair.

“Come on Cong, I might have to give him acupuncture…” Fan said, and both of them ran down the stairs.

 _Acupunture? You’ve got to be kidding me._ Fan could be so dramatic over injuries. She remembered the time when Cong had taken a heavy kick to the chest from a random mugger in an alleyway they were hiding in. Fan had gone hysterical with worry and insisted that Cong’s breathing be monitored through the night. Cong said numerous times that he really wasn’t in pain and he just needed a good night’s sleep. But his pleas were ignored, and Fan and Yu sat by his bedside despite his frustration.

Acupuncture was usually Fan’s go-to healing process. Ironically, it required a great deal of patience and a tedious amount of time. And Fan was the most impulsive, impatient, reckless person she’d ever met. If he was about to give Po acupuncture this was going to take all night. Ying herself was not patient enough to stick around for that. Yu also probably wouldn’t have the patience or even the will to stay awake for that. _Speaking of…_

She had a niggling feeling as to why Jia and Yu hadn’t showed up yet considering their yawns while making dinner. So she barged into Yu’s room unannounced with all the subtlety she didn’t have.

It seemed the day had really taken its toll on them, as when she opened the door Jia was lying on the floor, head propped up by the wall and Yu lying spread-eagled next to him, nodding off already. Her eyes snapped open and they both jumped up with alarm.

Jia blinked at her blearily. “Wha – what’s goin’ on?” He slurred, rubbing at his eyes.

“I’m _tired._ ” Yu groaned, curling herself into a foetal position.

Ying looked at the floor. “Po is injured.”

Yu did an exaggerated eye roll, and started to crawl tiredly out the room. “Again? Oh come _on_ we have to stop him getting hurt so much!”

Jia stayed where he was and examined Ying with a critical eye. “What did you do?” He asked slowly.

“Nothing, now move, I want to go to bed.” She kicked him weakly, reaching for Yu’s duvet and climbing into her bed.

“This isn’t your room.”

“I don’t care, I’m tired.”

“You’re not even in pyjamas.”

She just hummed in response and closed her eyes, sleep starting to take her almost instantly.

He pulled the duvet off her with no sympathy. “Wake the fuck up or Yu’s gonna kill you.”

She smirked, _that_ was the Jia she enjoyed spending time with.

Opening her eyes, she sat up, remembering that she never got the chance to eat her rice. “I’m actually really hungry.”

He grimaced. “Yeah me too, Shifu interrupted our dinner.”

“Wanna go eat now?”

He shrugged, starting to smile. “Sure, why not?”

* * *

“Ah that hurts… ou – OUCH!”

“Shush, it’s hard to concentrate when you complain like that.” Fan Hai said gently, poking another needle into Po’s back.

“I though you said acupuncture would make me feel – better!” His voice went horribly high with pain, into a register Po didn’t even know he could still do. “– _OUCH_!”

Fan Hai was unyielding. “Trust me, it will.”

Po scoffed, acupuncture could definitely not heal the awful bruises he’d sustained from Shifu and Ying.

“It’s just hard to find the nerve points under all this –“

“Fat?” Po finished for him boredly, he was so over everything by that point that he really didn’t care.

He heard Fan Hai open and close his mouth a few times. “I – I wasn’t going to say that…”

“Sure you weren’t.” Po muttered.

“I wasn’t!” He insisted. “I mean, who are we to judge a fighter based on their size? Look at Yu Ting.”

Po turned his head, where did she go? She’d been here a moment ago.

“Over here.” She said from where she was sitting in the corner of Fan’s room, waving a tired hand with a forced smile. “And thanks for that Fan, very flattering.” She remarked sarcastically.

Fan Hai tutted. “Take it as a –“

“ _AHAOUCH_!”

“- compliment.”

Yu Ting got up unwillingly, taking with her the textbook Fan Hai had been using for reference. “Maybe you should look at this again, you haven’t done acupuncture in a while.”

He was silent for a moment, and Po was sorely tempted to just get up and refuse anymore medical attention. “Ahhh I get it.” Fan Hai said, needles held in his mouth. “You guys should let me give you acupuncture more often, if Po’s gonna stay I need the practice.” He chuckled at his own joke that apparently didn’t catch on to Yu Ting.

Po raised a hand. “Still in the room.” He said, face-down into the mattress he was lying on.

“Don’t worry about it sweetie,” Yu Ting said comfortingly, patting his shoulder lightly. “we all get injured.”

“But by Shifu?” Po rested on his chin and looked them sceptically. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he really, _really_ hates me.” 

They exchanged a look with wide eyes.

“What? Why do you all keep looking at each other?” The constant illegible looks were really starting to get on Po’s nerves.

Yu Ting quickly morphed her face to give him a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Nothing!” She squeaked.

Fan Hai leant forward and stuck a harsh needle into Po’s neck. “I know he can seem kinda heartless.”

“Tell me about it.” Po muttered.

“But he wasn’t always like that.” Fan Hai carried on, ignoring his negative comments and winces of pain.

“You know there was a time when he actually used to _smile._ ” Yu Ting’s voice had decreased to an awed whisper, as if it was an unbelievable statement.

And the statement was pretty unbelievable. Po sat up onto his knees while Fan Hai protested at him ruining the needle work. “Really? When?”

She leaned closer. “It was before-“

The door opened with a slam.

“Before Tai Lung.” Ying said coldly.

Po gulped. She was the last person he wanted to see.

Yu Ting sighed loudly. “Can you _please_ learn to knock!”

Rapid footsteps and then Jia’s uncertain voice from the hallway. “Uh, Ying? We’re not really supposed to talk about him, so we should just leave it-“

“Well if he’s going to stay, he should know.”

Cong poked his head in from the other side and looked at Po with concern. “But it might freak him out-“

“Yeah we shouldn’t –“ Jia started to agree, but Po had other ideas.

“Guys, guys, don’t worry! I don’t get freaked out by this kinda stuff!” He sat up properly and faced Ying to prove his point.

He couldn’t deny she still scared him slightly, especially after the… incident. But for now the Furious Five probably just thought of him as a wimp. Or some stupid rando who wasn’t cut out for their team. And he needed to change that.

“Come on! Hit me with it! It can’t be that bad.” He encouraged, beckoning Ying closer.

She walked in, followed by the unwilling Jia and Wu Cong, and fixed him with a piercing stare. “According to legend-“

“It was twenty years ago!” Wu Cong interjected, throwing his hands up and frowning at her in question. Po honestly felt like asking how long they could go without interrupting each other.

Ying glared at him and raised her voice. “ACCORDING TO LEGEND –“

“Oh for fuck’s sake, go off then.” Wu Cong muttered, taking a dejected seat next to Yu Ting.

Ying talked over him. “- Tai Lung was left outside of the Palace by an unknown stranger. No note, nothing, just a baby. So naturally, Shifu took him in. At the time he had no students and was looking for ones with deceased or unconnected heritage to become spies. Tai Lung was the perfect choice.”

She faltered in her next words, and her face of stone fell slightly. “Subsequently, Shifu started to love him like a son, and officially adopted him and raised him as if he were his father. Tai Lung turned out to be a kung fu prodigy and was sent on many missions where every single one was a success.”

“His track record is cleaner than ours.” Fan Hai said sadly, sticking another needle into Po’s lower back.

“He was Shifu’s promised student and spy, the only one he’d ever need.” Ying’s tone shifted to something resembling bitterness rather than sadness. “Until – until it got to his head… someone who – well, the person who taught Shifu told him that Tai Lung had to leave this system, because he would soon become dangerous with the immense knowledge and training Shifu had given him.”

“Tai Lung was angry – understandably. And he destroyed the house, killing some of the stray cats around.” Po shivered, Ying had painted a disturbing image that he was sure would haunt his dreams that night. “After that Shifu really couldn’t keep him. He was so close to killing an actual person that it was just too dangerous for him to continue this line of work. Tai Lung then tried to – tried to go after Shifu.”

Ying stopped, Po was on the edge of his seat. “Well obviously that didn’t end too badly, Shifu is still here today. But when Tai fought him he was forced to destroy what he created… but how could he? Tai was his son after all.” She started to scowl at the words coming out her mouth. Though Po couldn’t fathom why.

“So Shifu’s old master sent Tai Lung to prison, far away from here. And that’s where it broke him, really.” Ying sighed and averted her eyes, interrupting her piercing stare. “Shifu loved Tai Lung like he had never loved anyone before… or since.”

The room was silent. Po didn’t know what to say.

“To be concise, Shifu is the tough in a tough love teacher.” Fan Hai said, walking round in front of Po.

“Harsh.” Was all he could murmur.

“Yes well, it does the job.” Yu Ting said, sounding as if she was completely resigned to whatever relationship they had with Shifu.

“But even if you do stay, does it _really_ matter if Shifu likes you?” Wu Cong said, although he may have meant well, it was extremely unhelpful. “You’ve got us!”

“… yeah, alright.” Po nodded slowly, looking at Ying. 

She gave him the slightest shake of her head, indicating he not mention the… incident. He wasn’t planning to anyway. It would be a sure suicide with Fan Hai, Wu Cong and Jia on his back.

“I’m not sure if Shifu really likes _us_ , to be honest.” Jia added. Maybe he was trying to comfort Po in that, weird, dry way of his. Either way, it wasn’t helping.

“Now that’s just pessimism.” Yu Ting berated.

“But he’s got a point,” Fan Hai said, starting to put away needles and closing the textbook he’d been reading off of.

“Fan,” Yu Ting frowned. “I want to live in my pretend-world where we are Shifu’s most prized students.”

Fan Hai shrugged. “You can’t beat the truth, and if you want to look at it on the bright side, at least he’s straight-forward with his disdain for the way we are, I’d rather that than a fake teacher.”

Wu Cong nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I’d rather that than a snake.”

At the word ‘snake’ five pairs of eyes suddenly glared at Po.

He opened and closed his mouth a few times. Were… were they implying he was fake? Did they know? Or was it just lucky guess work? They were spies after all, they probably made a lot of lucky guesses. But he hadn’t given anything away. Not yet anyway. They shouldn’t be onto him. Maybe they were just trying to freak him out? A weird, messed up tactic to get him to leave. It would have been something Shifu put them up to. Yes, yes that was it.

Or, just maybe, they knew. He’d been so good with hiding everything. And they had no way to even _trace_ anything about him. That wasn’t a possibility. It couldn’t be. Sweat started to form on his skin. Their glares were pretty heated.

Po laughed nervously. “Haha – yeah… snakes…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter made me extremely nervous to post and there's a lot of stuff that got cut from this because I felt they were too suggestive. God I hope I don't lose readers over this...
> 
> 1\. I have started *counts on fingers* one, two, three, FOUR subplots in this chapter! Some are less obvious than others, it'll be funny if anyone could spot them.   
> 2\. I did the iconic acupuncutre scene but obviously had to change a few things -  
> 3\. - and yes I left out the whole "accidental facial nerve tweak" because, honestly, as hilarious as that is I've never been in favour of it. Tigress is doing this whole narration and it's so emotional and wonderful, and then that. While it's a great bit of comedy, I've always felt it was a little misplaced and ruins the seriousness of the scene. 
> 
> BIG ANNOUNCEMENT  
> In September I am returning to sixth-form college. This means juggling 11+ hours of dance, 3 hours of practice on my instruments and 9+ hours of working every week. Not to mention that this year I'll be doing my A levels and we're supposed to study every day... (kill me now). Though my golden hours for writing are 11pm to 3am it's really not healthy for me to try and stay up that late to get chapters finished on time due to how much physical exercise I need to do. 
> 
> So rather than updating once a fortnight like how I've been doing, I'll be updating once every three weeks (Friday at midnight or early Saturday morning, either way you wanna see it). You may get lucky and the chapters might come quicker than that, but I only really have about one and half buffer chapters and I've incorparated multiple different plot-lines so I need to write ahead a little. To the people who follow me or this story, obviously you guys can wait for an email :). But if you are one of those lovely guests then why not make an account? I'd imagine it would be a hell of a lot easier than checking the front page XD.
> 
> Thank you for the kudos! <3


	7. Inner peace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shifu's side of the story

_This had to be a joke._

Shifu could not believe his eyes when he saw an overweight teenager hiding in the bushes next to the courtyard, unabashedly spying on Ying. Spying on her! He even had the audacity to try and film her with his phone! The shock of this bizarre sight hit him first, leaving him to watch for a few minutes rather than step in quicker. But in hindsight, that hadn’t been a good idea, as the shock soon turned to rage when Oogway’s stupid prediction boiled in his stomach.

And of course the rage lead him to take the boy’s arm in a vice-like grip and talk to him the way he would an enemy. “What are you doing!” He hissed, wanting to keep the impending fight a secret from Ying, who would surely not forgive him for treating a stranger so roughly.

The boy flushed and stammered like a child, even though he was probably the same age as Ying. “I – I –“ Was all he could get out. _Pathetic._

“How did you get here!” Did he go through the staff entrance? He must have done. The house was invisible to any of the population who went past the Palace and there was no way he could have got in and through to the courtyard without one of the others spotting him.

“Through – through the tunnel!” The boy choked out.

That meant he went through the staff entrance with a door that specifically had a PRIVATE sign on it. And that was surely the way Ying had got to the courtyard, she did say she would get some training done in between her shifts. A fresh surge of anger ran through him as he realised that this stranger had followed one of his students. Followed. Then tried to video.

Unable to hold his fury any longer, he raised his fist and delivered a perfect blow enough to knock him out for an hour or so.

The boy’s weight hitting the ground was enough for Ying to turn round in question.

Her eyes widened as Shifu stood up, dusting himself off. “Master Shifu?” She said, confused. “I heard a noise –“

“That was me.” He said, and pointed down to the unconscious intruder. She hesitantly walked forward and peered over to examine him. “An intruder, I think he followed you.”

She audibly gulped and retracted herself quickly, crossing her arms over her chest and shuffling her feet nervously (though he’d tried to train it out of them, there was no getting rid of his students’ distinguishable nervous ticks).

He frowned at her behaviour. “Do you recognise him?”

“He wanted to apply for a job at the Palace,” She started guiltily. “I refused and – I may have, um – left open the locker door.” Her voice had quietened to a mutter by the end of her incriminating sentence and she turned her head as to not make eye contact.

Shifu blinked at her, processing the information. “ _What?”_ He growled.

She opened and closed her mouth a few times. “I – I didn’t think that –“

“If you hadn’t left the door open then he wouldn’t have got in!” He shouted, that was the second thing he couldn’t believe that day. Ying’s stupid mistake.

She took a step back from him, still hugging herself.

“Have I not trained you well enough?! This is a rookie mistake!”

“I – I’m sorry master –“ She whispered weakly, eyes closed completely.

“An apology can’t undo the damage you’ve done!” Shifu couldn’t even feel guilty for yelling at her, though he knew it wouldn’t do any good, but he was absolutely furious. “This will ruin _everything!_ ”

She didn’t say anything.

“Do you even understand what this means?!” His throat started to become sore, he hadn’t shouted at anyone like this for at least a few months.

“Yes I understand.” She said, her jaw set and her eyes hard.

He sighed deeply, running a tired hand over the leathery skin of his face. The cost of her messy actions was unimaginable. It would change their lives and turn everything on its head in the most awful way. Surely nothing good would come from this disaster. Taking out the phone his students insisted he carry around with him, he sent out a group text to close the Palace immediately and get to the house as fast as possible. He needed to take care of the situation before things got out of hand.

“Carry him inside.” He instructed coldly, already walking to the back door.

Ying obediently bent down and threw him over her shoulder. He couldn’t deny that her strength was extremely impressive at times. Even though the boy definitely weighed far more than she did, she only teetered slightly underneath him, but was completely able to carry him all the way back to the house. In the living room, she threw him onto the sofa, and Shifu felt a small ounce of satisfaction at how careless she was with him.

Soon after the body was dumped, Ying perched on the edge of one of the chairs in the corner and his other students burst in, haggard and worried.

“What’s going on master?” Asked Yu Ting, worriedly, stepping towards him immediately. “Is everything alright?”

“What’s the emergency? And where’s Ying?” Wu Cong looked around the living room, and Ying got up from the chair to greet him half-heartedly.

“It’s a long story.” She muttered to him.

Jia, ever curious, had ventured across the room to the sofa, and was staring down at it with his jaw dropped.

“What did you _do_?” He breathed. The sofa had been turned to the wall to hide the unconscious body lying on it. Ying had obviously felt it was a little chilling to have lying out in the open.

Fan Hai jumped over and stared too. “Is that…?” He started, a disturbed look on his face.

“Yes, I knocked him out,” Shifu said monotonously as they all gasped. He wanted to roll his eyes, they were acting as if he’d committed a murder. “he’ll be unconscious for about an hour.”

“But where did he come from?” Yu Ting asked, also looking at the boy closely. “How did he get in? No one’s ever got in.”

Shifu opened his mouth to answer when the call of his ringtone went off. Glancing at the contact, he gave them each a stern look and left for the hallway to take it. “Yes?”

“ _You better get over here.”_

The grim words caused him to grip the phone a little tighter. “What happened?”

“ _He’s saying he needs to talk to you – now.”_

Shifu sighed, this really wasn’t the time. But now the prediction had, sort of, come true – Oogway would surely want to see him. And he couldn’t defy his master. Even if his students really did need him. “Alright, I’ll be there in a couple of hours.”

He hung up and went back to the living room. They were (as always) arguing, or perhaps exchanging insulting banter. He honestly couldn’t tell the difference, but there was no room for ponder, as everyone went silent once he entered.

He pointed to their intruder. “Keep an eye on him,” He said sternly, giving them each a glare they knew meant ‘if you disobey there will be consequences’. “I will be back soon.” And with that he turned to leave.

At the front door he could hear their conversation from the living room.

“He chooses _now_ to leave?!”

“It’s probably really important.”

“But isn’t this more of a pressing issue?”

“…you don’t think it’s about Oogway – do you?”

“Now you’ve mentioned it, it probably is.”

“Does that mean Oogway is…?”

“Ill? I hope not.”

“But what if he _dies_!”

Shifu had to roll his eyes at their dramatics. He was pretty sure it was Wu Cong who sounded ridiculously worried. Ooway wasn’t going to die. That wouldn’t happen, not for another twenty years!

* * *

He slammed the front door satisfyingly.

Shifu couldn’t remember the last time he was this angry for such a prolonged amount of time. This intruder had turned everything he’d worked so hard to create on its head. And all he had to do was exist. Merely exist in their presence, and all would be ruined.

Shifu took a deep breath of the chilly night air. It was best to get out, before he throttled each of his students. He never should have left them alone. It was glaringly clear he couldn’t trust them to behave how spies should. _But,_ his consciousness started, _they are no longer children._ Shifu physically shook his head at that statement, they certainly behaved like children.

All he could see was red as he walked to the Palace. To calm down the anger slightly he made a mental list of the things causing him to question reality. In total there were three of them:

Oogway’s prediction coming true.

The intruder wanting to stay.

The Furious Five’s identities no longer being a complete secret.

Lighting the candles one by one he prepared for meditation. This was his moment for ultimate relaxation. The only glow came from the wicks surrounding him and merely a mat to sit cross-legged on. He focused all his attention on breathing. _In, out. In, out._

_Inner peace_

_Inner peace_

His dejected face swam into view, the one he wore after Oogway had insisted Shifu let him go. Shifu knew then, that his son would never forgive him. And he was right, that grudge had boiled and simmered and most likely grown and stagnated after so many years. He exhaled loudly and gritted his teeth. He had to stop letting his thoughts slip to him.

_Inner peace_

_Inner peace_

Oogway’s second prediction arose in his mind. The terrifying, horrifying statement that would definitely haunt his many nightmares to come. Once Oogway said it, he immediately scoffed. It was probably just the medication they’d placed him on, causing him to spout absolute nonsense. He was incredibly old after all. _But then,_ his consciousness made itself apparent, _his prediction about the intruder came true, why can’t this one?_

_INNER PEACE_

His consciousness quietened.

_Inner peace_

Flapping penetrated his perfectly silent environment.

“Whoever is making that flapping sound, _quiet_ _down_!” He bellowed, eyes still closed.

_Inner peace_

_Inner peace_

The flapping got louder.

_Inner peace_

And then became accompanied by footsteps slapping on stone.

_Inner –_

He sighed deeply and opened his eyes. Meditation completely ruined.

Lifting himself up he turned round, ready to have a go at whoever had interrupted his sweet serenity.

Except it was just Zheng, with a long scarf billowing behind him and looking incredibly harried.

Shifu paid no mind to that and cracked his first relieved smile in days. “Ah Zheng! I could use some good news right about now.” He said expectantly, and laced his fingers together, awaiting a response.

Zheng blinked, his mouth still held open from whatever he wanted to say. “ _Uhhhh…”_

* * *

Pressing the red button to hang up, Shifu felt the tension in his shoulders ease slightly.

Ying, at least, he could trust. Her unwavering loyalty was admirable even for him, and a small part of him was eternally grateful for that. It was times like these where he really appreciated how disciplined she was, unlike his previous son.

His previous, before committing his crimes, was secretive and cunning – and Shifu hated to admit that he turned a blind eye to that. The constant sneaking out and disobedience Shifu was sure he’d grow out of. Except he never did. Or – never got the chance to.

_Inner peace._

Thank god Ying wasn’t like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) This is a very short chapter, I'm pretty sure it's not even 2k words. But when a chapter needs to end, it needs to end. The only other short chapters will be chapter 9 and the last one ;)  
> 2) If this chapter is a little confusing - it's meant to be. But don't worry, a lot gets explained in the next chapter, and probably the consecutive ones too.  
> 3) I hope I didn't butcher Shifu's character lol, he's so hard to write
> 
> Thanks for the kudos and don't forget to comment! I love hearing thoughts on the stories


	8. Slices of the cake that is life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Slices of their current lives exposing certain secrets and hidden details kept in the shadows.

It was Po’s third day living with them, and Fan Hai was sure that things would start looking up.

The first sign everything would go well was that Ying didn’t give them a rude awakening at the ungodly hours of the morning. Fan woke up with a satisfying stretch and the sun on his face, the house silent save for one of the cats trying to claw its way into his room. He dressed in his comfiest kung fu clothes while checking the various social media apps on his phone. Everything was going to go well.

He could have sworn he and Cong had the same mind, as they both opened their doors simultaneously and came face-to-face at the hallway. “Ready for a day of training?” Cong asked, grinning and shutting his door with a slam. 

“Without Shifu? Always.”

They started to go downstairs, eager for food. “Did you finish the acupuncture on Po last night?”

Fan scrunched his nose. “I guess… I mean it was pretty late and I could have done more – but Po seemed alright with it.”

“You know what, I was thinking about this last night,” Cong started thoughtfully. “how did he manage to get so injured when Shifu just… slammed him.” He said the last two words almost disbelievingly.

“I was thinking about that too!” Fan turned to him excitedly. “His injuries looked like he’d been slammed twice!”

“But we only heard one slam…” Cong said thoughtfully, then looked at Fan with wide eyes. “You don’t think Ying actually…?” He trailed off, not needing to say anymore.

Fan shrugged. “I wouldn’t put it past her, I don’t think she likes him at all.”

“Yeah but she made him breakfast yesterday.”

Fan could have choked. “ _What?!_ She’s never made _me_ breakfast!” He exclaimed, outraged at the mere thought of Ying being so hospitable.

“Speaking of, should we go out for breakfast?” Cong put a hand suggestively on the knob of the front door after bounding over to it. “You know, order some food for everyone.”

Fan narrowed his eyes at him. “You’re ignoring my crisis.”

“Stop being so self-centered and let’s pay for some overpriced food, I’m starving.” Cong rolled his eyes and opened the door.

“ _Wait_ , just have some patience dude,” Fan backpedalled towards the stairs again. “I’m in training clothes, lemme go change –“

“Telling me to be patient is a bit rich coming from you.” Came Cong’s mutter.

Fan pulled a more normal-looking shirt over his head and exchanged his trousers for jeans. Blending in was essential – according to Shifu anyway. _Ah, that’s something else we haven’t told Po,_ he realised, while trying to get the stiff denim to cooperate with him. _I’ll get Yu to do it, she’s good at that stuff._

With the knowledge that his friends were picky eaters, he stuck his head into each of their rooms to gather a list of what everyone wanted.

“Something spicy.” Ying said, not glancing up from her laptop. “Sauce on the side.”

“Tofu buns.” Jia said while examining his hair in the mirror of his room. “Actually no, make that laksa.”

Po was easy and just said “anything”, another sign for Fan that this day would go smoothly.

“Bubble tea and dumplings.” Yu muttered from underneath her bedsheets.

Fan tutted. “You shouldn’t drink so much of that stuff, it’s not good for you.”

Her duvet pulled down slightly to show a tired pair of eyes glare at him. “I am not Ying, you don’t have to baby me.”

He scoffed. “You are second youngest though.”

“Bubble tea, large cup,” She repeated, ignoring him. “and I’m not second youngest anymore, Po is.”

Fan just sighed and made a note of her order on his phone. If Shifu knew how much sugar she consumed in those damn bubble teas he’d throw a fit.

“By the way, could you – like, de-brief Po?” He asked her reluctantly.

Yu frowned, sitting up. “De-brief him? I thought we already did that.”

“But we didn’t tell him about… you know, the little things,” Fan gestured helplessly with his hands, not sure how to explain what he wanted to say. “I don’t want to say _lifestyle_ but – yeah, you know what I mean.”

“ _Oh_ – I get you!” She nodded happily.

It was as if a light _dinged_ above his head.

“Take him bird feeding and explain then!” He said triumphantly. Fan was sure he was a genius, it was the best idea he’d had in a while. “He seems a bit shaken in the house, I think getting out would be good for him!”

Yu grimaced. “Jia’s not gonna be happy about that.”

Fan would have said a scalding comment if he weren’t with Yu, who currently held the title of ‘the one who will defend her friends with life and limb’, it was too early for a fight and in all honesty he did not feel like getting physical on a resting day. “He’ll have to deal with it, if Po’s going to stay then they need to at least talk.”

Yu tilted her head in thought, still grimacing. “Alright… but you need to tell –“

“Okay thanks bye!” Fan called out quickly, slamming her door shut on her words.

No _way_ was he going to tell Jia that he needed to spend even more time with Po. He wanted to buy breakfast with all his bones intact thank you very much.

Cong tapped his foot impatiently at the door, still wating in the same spot. “Well you took your time.”

He jumped down the stairs three at a time and stumbled into Cong with a laugh. “I was asking everyone what they wanted because I’m _such_ a good friend.” Fan smiled in self-satisfaction and held his head up, opening the door and stepping out.

* * *

“Five laps round the courtyard, go!”

Po’s jaw dropped in shock but didn’t bother disobeying him and resolutely got started on his five laps.

It was the middle of Po’s third day living with them, and his first official training session.

Cong smiled to himself, he could see why Shifu liked being a teacher now. It was infinitely better to be on the giving rather than receiving end of reprimand or harsh instruction. After getting put on training duty for Po he had initially dreaded it. This was their day off, and he’d planned to spend it with Fan and, while Shifu was away, relaxing in his bed with Fan and Netflix. And though it got taken away from him, he found that training wasn’t so bad, not really. _Well,_ he thought sagely, _we haven’t got to the hard stuff yet._

He reclined back on the chair he took outside and put his feet up on the spindly outdoors table Yu had insisted they buy. Taking a sip of his tea he revelled cruelly in watching Po suffer just as Shifu did to him.

Though he did have the teensiest, _tiniest_ ounce of guilt for being so mean.

At the fourth lap Cong waved him over.

“You can stop now, I think that was… sufficient – as a warm-up.” He said, looking Po up and down.

He was certainly not in good shape. Cong was a firm believer that the way someone looked was no defining factor to their health. But this… this was a different case. It was so obvious that Po had little to no experience with physical exercise.

Po took a few deep gulping breaths and finally stopped wheezing. “What’s – what’s next?” He asked despite the sweat dripping at his hairline and his heavy exhales.

Cong had to try hard not to let the shock show on his face at Po’s enthusiasm. “Let’s start you off with – errrr…” He faltered, realising that he had no real training plan for Po.

“So how come we’re not working today?” Po piped up, having now caught his breath as Cong searched the courtyard for Shifu’s possible notes (as if he took notes on their progress anyway).

“Because it’s Tuesday, we’re closed on Wednesdays I thought you of all people would know that.” He looked at Po quizzically, who in turn was shooting him the same look.

“Tuesday? Why Tuesday?” Perplexed was Po’s permanent facial expression at this point. “Why not the weekend or maybe Monday or Friday?”

Cong shrugged. “Why _not_ Tuesday?”

“Because it’s weird.”

“Well it’s our day off, so stop insulting our choice of day.”

Sighing at the lack of guidance he had on training Po, he took out his phone and sent a quick text to Fan for help.

“Do you actually _use_ this?!” Came Po’s excited exclamation.

Cong looked up in confusion and turned around to find Po holding a bo staff.

 _His_ precious bo staff.

“Hey!” He ran over and snatched it out of Po’s hands more forcefully than he intended. “That’s mine.”

Po was unaffected by Cong’s reaction, and he gasped. “Do you use it to fight? Do you bring it on missions with you?!”

Cong gripped it possessively. “No,” He said tightly, sounding much more like Jia than himself. “we’re not allowed to bring weapons.” His throat constricted around the words that caused him so much grief.

“But you can fight with it?”

“Yes!” Cong misery was quickly replaced by frustration, could this guy not read body language? “It’s mine! Of course I can fight with it!” He sighed, pressing a pained hand to his face. It was better to walk away – before he started sobbing like an idiot.

“Then why can’t you take it with you?” Cong was really starting to see Ying’s dislike for Po. He continued walking away, making it very clear that their conversation was over.

He swung open the back door with a bang, and had to stop himself from wincing at how expensive the hit against the wall sounded. Shifu would surely gripe at him about the dent later. “Wouldn’t it be easier to use a weapon?” Po carried on. “Then the fight would be fair if –“

Cong whipped around, stopping Po in his tracks. “No!” He yelled, frustration finally getting at him. “ _Obviously_ it would be easier! But we can’t bring them!”

Po was looking it him as if he’d shouted a lot louder than he actually did. “I – I don’t understand.”

Cong gritted his teeth. “Nothing new there.” He remarked rather aggressively, almost wincing immediately after.

“I’ve never seen someone fight with a bo staff… can you – show me?” He asked, suddenly shy.

“Alright then.” Cong bit out, striding past Po and back outside. “Alright then.” He repeated to himself in a growl, forgetting all previous sympathy for Po.

He took the second bo staff they had lying around for sparring and tossed it to Po, who caught it with a fumble. Not bothering to take a deep breath and get into the right mindset, he readied himself into a kung fu stance, staff ready.

“Come on, let’s fight.” He said threateningly, beckoning Po closer with his hand.

Po was frozen on the spot, holding the staff inexpertly. “Is this part of… training?” He squeaked.

Cong tilted his head. “Sort of, now come _on_! I want to fight.”

Po took a tiny step forwards. “I don’t know if I’m ready for this stuff,” He began worriedly. “I just ate and I don’t think –“

“AAARGH!” Cong ran towards him with a battle cry and whipped the staff into his side.

Po yelped loudly and scurried away.

Cong span the staff round himself in his favourite combination and got into a lower, much more powerful stance. “COME ON!” He shouted, rage uncharacteristically taking over as his primary emotion. “FIGHT!”

Po almost dropped the staff in his surprise. His first mistake was his stance. Had he learnt nothing from studying all that kung fu? He stood with his legs too close together and completely upright, like he was scared to take up too much room. Standing like that would never get him enough power to properly hurt anyone with a bo staff.

He took a tentative step forward and Cong’s split-second decision to go easy on him was broken as, in a stupid moment of impulsiveness, he circled his staff under Po’s legs in a strong hit. It buckled his knees and Po collapsed to the ground in obvious pain.

Gripping his staff tighter, he fought against the instinct to hit Po even harder. “FIGHT ME!” He yelled again.

What was he _doing?_ This was so unlike him. _What are you doing stop being a dick._

His inner monologue paused as Po scrambled amongst the dirt and Cong took the opportunity to kick him further back, relishing in finally getting the chance to use his staff. After struggling against Cong’s blows, Po stood up with fresh determination, sweating and out of breath. He delivered a weak, aimless strike, one of someone who’d only watched kung fu. Cong blocked it deftly, letting the disappointment show in his face.

“FOOTWORK!” He roared, knocking Po’s staff out of his hands. “GET INTO A PROPER STANCE!”

At a loss of what to do without a staff, Po simply gave him a look of confused alarm. “W – what?”

“FUCKING FOOTWORK!”

Po still stood with his legs too close together. _For fuck’s sake –_

Completely done with their excuse of a spar, Cong went to deliver a final strike to Po’s shoulder –

Except he chose that moment to duck down.

The bo staff hit his skull with a dull _thunk_ and Po dropped to the floor for the… second? No, _third_ time since coming to the Palace.

Cong simply stared at the damage he’d done, still holding his staff like a lifeline.

“Ah fuck…” He muttered. He was so in for it.

_I fucked up_

Was all he texted. Within a minute (record time) Fan, Yu, Jia and Ying were thundering down the stairs and bursting through the back door.

“WU CONG!” Bellowed Yu.

He gulped, hiding his bo staff behind his back.

“WHAT PART OF DON’T KNOCK HIM OUT DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?!” She was furious, even as much as Ying usually was.

He stumbled back as she stormed towards him, hackles raised and ready to fight. She grabbed Po’s forgotten staff and directed it into a reverse strike high above her head. Cong was quick to block it and the sticks collided so hard he was almost afraid of them snapping. Having much more training with a staff than she did, he span his staff into hers, hitting it harshly. She countered with another strike but this time it was weaker, and Cong’s pressing block was enough to cause her to fall to the dirt.

The sight of one of his best friends in pain for his stupidity was enough to snap him back into his usual demeanour.

“Sorry Yu!” He apologised, and held his hand out to help her up, heavy guilt suddenly prominent in his mind. “Are you alright? Honestly, I didn’t mean to –“

Yu, ever sympathetic, didn’t seem too annoyed at his unnatural outburst, and tugged herself up on his hand. “It’s cool, I guess you needed that.” She said, grimacing. “I know you’ve been a bit… off recently, we all have.”

He nodded, eternally grateful that she didn’t get angry at him and demand for a re-match without the staffs.

During their angry spar, Fan had knelt down to examine Po. He waved them over, looking more than just a little pissed.

“Could you not have used a punching bag or something?” He pointed at yet another bruise on Po.

“Or even sparred with one of us.” Jia suggested darkly. “You just had to take it out on a guy who can’t even touch his toes.”

Cong gritted his teeth. “I didn’t _mean_ to,” Fan fixed him with a glare at the pathetic excuse. “I was aiming for his shoulder anyway, and he was basically asking for it!”

“How though?” Jia pressed. “I highly doubt he _wanted_ to fight with you considering he doesn’t know how.”

“He asked about why I don’t bring my staff on missions,” Cong relentlessly carried on his defence, crossing his arms over his chest, refusing to see how unjustified their fight was. “and I made it _very_ clear that I didn’t want to talk about it. I just said that we weren’t allowed and tried to walk away, you know, like an _adult._ ” He spat out that last part immaturely. 

“Then what lead to your stupid tantrum?” Fan asked, eyes narrowed.

“Then he asked me to show him how I fight with it!” He exclaimed, suddenly angry again at the fresh memory.

“But that didn’t mean he wanted you to fight _with_ him!” Yu rolled her eyes. “We need to stop being so violent…”

Before Cong could point out how much of a hypocrite she was being, Ying spoke up for the first time.

“I don’t think what you did was that bad.” She said idly. “You did what he asked, and he got a real lesson of what we do around here.”

Jia looked at her as if she were deranged. “I’m pretty sure he got a real lesson when Shifu knocked him out the first time.” He said sagely.

Ying ignored him, still addressing Cong. “And I can also see how you lashed out, it was understandable.”

Fan gasped, pointing at Ying accusingly. “So you _did_ beat him up yesterday!” He exclaimed triumphantly. “I _knew_ it! His injuries were way worse than just one body slam!”

Ying shook her head furiously. “No! I didn’t do anything!”

Fan ignored her defiance. “I’ve connected the dots – !” He carried on.

She set her jaw. “You didn’t connect shit.” Ying said dryly.

“I’ve _connected_ them!” Fan was unrelenting enough that Ying soon gave up on her pathetic lie.

She closed her eyes in what could only be guilt. “Okay I get it, I overreacted…”

Jia gestured helplessly. “So I guess he was prepared for it. Great, just great.”

“Oh you can _not_ talk!” Cong turned to Jia suddenly, poking him in the chest with his bo staff. “You’ve been the least welcoming out of all of us!”

Jia had the nerve to be shocked. “Me?!” He spluttered. “Unlike you, Fan and Ying, I haven’t threatened or beaten him up yet!”

Yu sighed deeply and closed her eyes. “Guys… can we please not argue…”

“But unlike me, Fan and Ying, you haven’t even made an attempt at a proper conversation with him!”

“Yes I did! The first night he was here!”

“Not properly! You even went to go sleep in Yu’s room! Which, by the way, Shifu would have killed you for.”

“Okay stop!” Yu stood between them, scowling. “Arguing helps no one and that’s all we’ve been doing since Po got here. So please, let’s just focus on getting him conscious again.”

Cong deflated, shame burning inside him. As always, Yu was right. They had definitely become more argumentative and… dare he say _violent_ since Po arrived. Of course they had their little petty fights and stunts, but it was all in jest, the familiarity between them so strong that any _real_ argument was difficult to begin. Fan and Ying resolutely took Po’s lifeless form and started to carry him back to the house, Yu following them with a huff.

Cong tapped Jia on the shoulder. “No more bad blood?” He suggested.

Jia’s usual wry smile appeared again. “We never had bad blood to begin with, you know that.”

Cong elbowed him playfully. “Yu is right, you _are_ Icarus.”

The smile turned into a groan. “Seriously… I thought no one would pick up on that nickname...”

“You have to give it to her, it’s inventive.” Cong chuckled. “Though I’ve only heard it a few times, which is probably why it didn’t catch on to the rest of us.”

Jia rolled his eyes. “She only calls me that when I’ve pissed her off.”

“And somehow that’s so rare,” Cong shook his head. “how, young Icarus, do you stay on her good side?”

Jia tapped the side of his nose annoyingly. “That’s a secret.”

* * *

It was Po’s late afternoon of his fourth day living with them, and Yu stood at the bottom of the stairs with Jia close-by at the front door.

Yu dangled the plastic bag in her hand. "PO!" She called.

"Hey hey!" Jia made small movements to get them towards the front door. "What are you doing?!" He whispered. 

She elbowed him away with a frown. " _PO_! COME DOWN-!" 

" _No_ no no no!" He put two strong hands around her shoulders and tried to steer her round. "We don't want him to-" 

She threw him off angrily. "We _do_ want him to come with us! He's living here now so you need to have an _actual_ conversation with him!" Ignoring the shake of his head, she stomped over to the stairs. "PO COME ON!" 

The sound of clambering steps and Po was making his way down. "What – what is it? What’s going on?" He asked, seeming almost frightened to know what was in store for him. 

She plastered a wide grin on her face and held up the bag. "You're coming with us to feed the birds!" She said cheerily. 

"Uhhh – what?" 

"None of us like eating the ends of bread, so every time we finish a loaf we collect them all then me and Jia go to the river and feed them to the birds." 

Po's mouth fell open and he only said a long: " _Uhhhhh…"_

Yu made a "come hither" gesture and he obliged hesitantly. “Don’t you do training or something when you’re not working?”

She grimaced, remembering their heavy responsibilities. “Yeah… “ She affirmed slowly. “but Shifu’s not here so we get to relax a little – and we did just do a day of work at the Palace.” She pointed in the direction of the Palace. It _was_ Po’s fourth day living with them, but it was also his second day working with them. And Yu had to admit that since he was a new employee he was dead weight added to their day. 

"So this is what you guys do for fun around here?" He sounded so on-edge that she had to stop herself from laughing. 

"Feeding the birds is what me and Jia do to pass the time," She nodded at Jia, who was standing at the door, sulking childishly. "we do other stuff for fun, but sometimes we just need to wind down, be with nature, y'know?" _Ugh, I'm rambling,_ she gripped the bag tighter and opened the door. 

Feeding the ends of bread to the birds was a little… tradition her and Jia had been doing since their group was formed. Four years earlier, they'd found while making toast that everyone avoided the end of the loaf. It was an off-hand suggestion from Jia that they should feed the birds, one which he wasn't entirely on board with. But she rolled with it anyway, and after spending an hour or so at the river, they realised it was a good way to sort of have a calm moment between the craziness. Ying, Fan and Cong didn't enjoy it as much as they did, so it became more of a "Yu and Jia" thing to do. 

Luckily for them, it was another sunny day, but with a light breeze easing the humidity. 

“Where are we going?” Asked Po, following behind them.

“Have you ever been to the forest before?” Yu glanced back at him and his face was just as it permanently seemed to be now, confused.

“No, but –“

“That’s where we’re going.”

The forest was behind the high mountain the Jade Palace sat atop of. The Palace was already on the outskirts of the city, and would have allowed them almost complete isolation if it wasn’t a tourist attraction. The trek down initially felt more like a hike, or rather, _looked_ like a very steep hike. But it really wasn’t. Yu and Jia had figured out pretty early on a nice little trail to follow, with less of a drop and less danger. It took them directly down to the bottom of the earth, where the river ran freely and an old bench sat next to it.

No one else ever appeared. Not even stray dog walkers. And more than a few times Yu wondered why the trail was built and the bench was placed if it was a desolate area.

Jia jogged to keep up with her and bent down to whisper in her ear. “What are you trying to achieve by doing this?”

Yu had to grit her teeth. “There’s still so much we haven’t explained to him,” She ignored Jia’s sigh. “he’s confused and we can’t have that.”

“And we couldn’t do that in the house because…?”

“I – I don’t know actually.” Yu frowned, why exactly had it been such a good idea for them to take Po bird feeding? They could explain to him in the house. Whatever Fan said about the house making Po on edge was extremely unapparent to her. In comparison, the forest was probably worse since it was an isolated area and Po’s fears of them suddenly attacking him (she had to thank Cong for that) would be much more rational.

“Who told you that we had to do it outside?” Jia pressed further.

“Fan,” She said, then pondered carefully over the next events dictating their current activity. “but that was yesterday, and I decided against it because of… well, Cong.”

“And then?”

“Ying was really on board with the idea, and she was really, I don’t know – like – really pushing it?”

Jia hummed, frowning also, biting his lip. That was something she found funny about him. He’d catch his lip between his teeth when he was deep in thought.

“Okay, whatever you’re thinking, stop.” She took his hand and squeezed it.

He didn’t reciprocate the gesture. “It could just be that Ying wanted some alone time, without him in the house,” He said, more to himself than her. “but I feel like there’s something else to it. She didn’t seem that keen on telling him about us, so why would she _want_ us to dedicate a good hour to explanations? It just doesn’t add up.”

“Just _stop,”_ Yu elbowed him, more force behind the action. “this is Ying we’re talking about, what ulterior motives could she have without telling _us_?” 

He stayed silent, looking down at the ground, rice hat obscuring his face.

Yu sighed loudly. “Let’s just forget about all the dramatics and enjoy our time to relax, okay?” The hat lifted and a ghost of a smile appeared on his face. “I like feeding the birds and I’d rather not have our time ruined by –“

“You guys are pretty loud.” Po called from behind them.

They turned round and he was watching them boredly with a resigned look on his face and mild exhaustion from the long trek.

“I didn’t hear much,” He said quickly. “but I wanted to say something before you gave away one of your secrets.”

The comment teetered dangerously on the edge of snarky, but Yu let it slide.

“Sorry about that! Thanks for letting us know –“

“ _One_ of our secrets?” Jia obviously had other ideas. “Are you… are you saying that we’ve been – erm – overly secretive?” His tone was apprehensive and Yu wanted to give him a slap to shut up.

“Uh, yes?” Po said as if it was obvious and gestured around him with an impatient hand. “Your whole thing is about secrets! Apparently I’m living with you now and I hardly know who you are!” It was hard to keep a straight face when Po was so obviously angry at them.

Yu stepped forward, crossing the gap between them. “What do you want to know then?”

“Who are you guys?! You’re the Furious Five but where did you even come from? Were you just born in that house then you formed a team of spies?” Po visibly gritted his teeth, his stance becoming a little stiffer. “I don’t even know how old you are! Do your parents know about this? Does anyone else? Is this whole thing even _legal_? And for the last time, what’s going to happen with _me_?!”

“Okay, that’s quite a lot,” She grimaced pointed to a bench a little further down where the river ran, sparkling with water and inhabited by ducks, pigeons and various other birds.

Po followed her sulkily, still steaming from how aggravated the situation was making him. Jia sat delicately on the far end of the bench, crossing his long legs together. Po sat on the other end and Yu Ting placed herself between them, almost acting like a mediator.

“Who are we?” She repeated his question back to him, opening the bag and taking out a piece of bread and handing it to Jia. “Well, normal people… I guess. Aside from being spies, we have our jobs at the Palace, our social lives, and generally very average things like that.” She shrugged, there was no other way to explain it.

Po nodded slowly. “That… makes sense.”

“As for where we came from –“ She glanced a look at Jia, who was staring passively out to the river. “that’s more of a long story.”

It was a story Yu didn’t really know the full extent of if she had to be honest. They hardly discussed their beginnings, always moving onwards and upwards in their lives.

“To keep it concise, I had a pretty normal childhood. I went to school and took dance classes in the evening. The only thing that wasn’t normal was –“ She stopped, frowning at how to word it. "well I was actually home-schooled and I - er, danced more than focused on my academics."

At her hesitation, Jia placed a hand on her knee and she covered it with her own. She chuckled uncomfortably and carried on. “I was at a dance audition when Ying found me. I was… sixteen and she was asking for a dancer – and I didn’t do very well at the audition – so I followed her, thinking it was something to do with my career.”

Po was frowning, watching her carefully. “It sounds like a stupid move, I know, but it ended with me becoming part of the Furious Five and the rest is either history or confidential.” She shrugged, knowing that her side of the story alone did not make much sense.

“And what about the others?” Po pressed on persistently, eyes flickering to Jia, who was still mute.

Yu looked at Jia hopefully, giving his hand another squeeze. “Jia? Do you want to…?”

He sighed, turning slightly to finally face Po. “There’s not much to it really. I was the same as Yu, went to school, finished school, and I took a gap year to work as a cleaner. It was good pay and a way for me to get my finances sorted.” Yu didn’t comment on his lack of detail and monotonous explanation. “Then when I was eighteen and only a few months into the job, I met Ying.”

“Let me guess, she was asking for a cleaner?”

Jia hummed and nodded. “She was really young, like fifteen, and I went with her because at the time I was sort of reckless, I’d only just moved out and being a cleaner is seriously boring.”

Yu had to stifle a laugh, from the sounds of it they were both extremely trustworthy of a random stranger. Po appeared to thinking along the same lines, judging from his expression.

“What about Fan Hai and Wu Cong?” He asked.

Yu shook her head with finality. “That’s for them to tell,” She tore off an edge from the bread and threw it to a hungry-looking pigeon. “now for how old we are, Ying’s the youngest, she’s nineteen, I’m twenty, Cong and Jia are both twenty-two and Fan’s twenty-three.”

“I thought you were… younger.”

“That’s because she’s small.” Jia commented out the corner of his mouth.

Yu elbowed him with an eye roll. “And also because when we’re around each other we can be… pretty immature, you know how it is when you’re with your friends, you do stupid things.” She thought back to some of the memorable moments they’d had together fondly. If Po fit in nicely with them, she was sure there’d be no problems at all. “What was the next question?”

“Your parents, do they know about this?”

Jia’s hand tightened on her knee and she bit her lip. “That’s – that’s confidential, I think.”

“But what am I supposed to tell my dad?” He asked, almost pleadingly.

“Oh sweetie, I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s going to happen – we just have to let time tell.” Yu really did feel sorry for him because she really had no idea what their next move would be. Shifu wanted him out, but Po wanted to stay, and with how much he knew there was no way to get him out. But considering his dad lived only in the city, the prospect of him becoming a spy seemed almost impossible.

And my other question, does anyone else know? About this whole… thing.”

“I’m sorry Po, I know it seems like we’re just making excuses, but that is extremely confidential.”

Po frowned and opened his mouth. “Confidential as in, we could literally be sent to prison if we tell you.” Jia said firmly, shutting up any retort he had.

“And no to this being legal.” He added. “We work against the government, that’s why our identities have to be protected.”

“That’s… really cool.” Po breathed, and Jia sighed out of exasperation.

“It is isn’t it?” Yu agreed happily.

“And for the last time – _we don’t know what will happen with you,_ ” Jia said, enunciating each word with a sombre tone. “it’s an unfortunate situation for everyone, but it’s out of our hands. Everything comes from higher up.”

“Jia!” Yu exclaimed in interruption. “ _Shut up!_ You’re worse than Fan!”

His eyes widened at the realisation that he almost incriminated himself and pulled his hat down. “I shouldn’t have said that… I should _not_ have said that…” He muttered.

Yu turned back to Po, who was giving them bewildered looks. “Ignore him,” She elbowed Jia in the side again as payback. “so uh – any other questions?” She asked airily, attempting to move the conversation away from the previous subject.

“Yeah…” Po watched Jia closely. “why is he wearing _that_ hat and the not the one he usually wears around the Palace?” He pointed to Jia’s precious rice hat accusingly.

“I think that’s a bit too personal for him.” Yu said smugly, smirking evilly.

“Shut up Yu, Po don’t listen to her, it’s _not_ personal.” He huffed and put his hand over her mouth.

Yu shot her tongue out to lick him childishly, and he retracted his hand with a yelp, wiping it dry on his shirt. “Yu Ting! That’s gross!”

She just laughed at him. “That’s not what you said the other week.”

“Oh _now_ who’s worse than Fan.” He retorted.

“Okay, okay.” Po said loudly, breaking them out of their immature back-and-forth. “Back to your hat?”

“Oh, right, yes.” Jia cleared his throat. “I’m not allowed to wear the rice hat in public.”

Po blinked. “What?”

“Shifu doesn’t let me, actually, Shifu doesn’t let us do a lot of things… - but I like wearing a hat, so I have other, normal-looking caps that I wear when I work and when I go out.”

“Wait, what _else_ doesn’t Shifu let you do?”

“Well, when I finally did move out, I wanted to grow out my hair, probably down to my shoulders, because I’ve always liked that sort of look.” Jia ran a hand through his very average hairstyle uncomfortably.

“You’d look good with long hair, you know I like that look as well.” Yu assured him.

“Yeah, you – you actually would.” Po agreed, looking at him carefully.

Jia smiled in thanks. “Ying’s the opposite of me, she wants to cut hers, to a pixie cut or something – she hates having it the length it is now, she says it’s too inconvenient.”

“But she’d really suit short hair!” Po exclaimed, aghast.

“We think so too! But she’s not allowed.” Yu said sadly. “For me, it’s that I can’t wear more alternative clothing and makeup – you know, the stuff that’s really ‘out there’, I’ve always liked adventurous fashion.” She closed her eyes dreamily, picturing all the clothes she’d found online, the jackets, belts, and boots sure to get heads turning.

“And then Fan and Ying aren’t allowed to work out too much,” Jia added, scowling at the ground. “Shifu doesn’t want them too muscular, which is so unbelievably backwards…”

“And Cong can’t fight with his bo staff,” Yu finished. “so that explains his outburst at you yesterday.”

Po was staring at them in shock and perhaps even anger. “ _What?!_ I – I don’t understand, why won’t he let you do these things?!”

“It’s all about blending in and going unnoticed,” Jia said sagely. “no one wears rice hats anymore, so I’ll stick out in a crowd. Alternative fashion is called that for a reason, it’s not what you’d normally find in the shops. Long hair on men and short hair on women is still, in Shifu’s eyes, fairly uncommon. Someone muscular would intimidate you, so you’ll stay away and unconsciously not trust them. And bringing a bo staff to a fight blows your cover.”

“And sadly for us, all these rules work,” Yu said, absentmindedly tearing the bread to pieces. “I mean, you thought we were just employees in the Jade Palace, and you’ve definitely seen us around the city and even in your dad’s restaurant, but did you ever notice us?”

Po shook his head slowly. “No… I never – never thought about it like that.”

“We look totally average, totally normal, and totally trustworthy.” Jia sighed deeply. “It just… comes at a cost.”

“Do I have to follow these rules too?” Po asked, clasping and unclasping his hands nervously.

Jia nodded solemnly.

Po sighed. “I bet Shifu will make me lose weight... he’s already called me fat.”

“There’s nothing wrong with what you look like Po,” Jia said firmly. “ but I’m sorry, either way he doesn’t care about that sort of thing and he probably will - it’s unfair and definitely unnecessary, but Shifu is relentless with things like these, he’d make me shorter if he could.”

Po nodded, seeming resigned to his fate. “It seems reasonable, I do stick out a bit.” He said, a bit self-deprecatingly.

“Don’t say that!” Yu chimed in, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. “You mustn’t feel this way about yourself, you’re great!”

“Yu’s right, and for what it’s worth, I think you’re pretty good-looking the way you are.” Jia said with a smile.

Po grinned back at him, a happy glow lighting up his face. “So, no more secrets, right?”

“Yes, I think that’s all of them, no more secrets.” Yu nodded and threw the last piece of bread at a passing duck.

* * *

It was Po’s second evening living with them and currently his first acupuncture session.

Ying’s phone vibrated with a light buzzing noise on the wooden floor. She watched it carefully as it moved slightly with each silent ring. Picking it up meant she’d have to talk to him. But leaving it meant even worse consequences, especially when he came back again.

So she pressed the green button and raised the phone to her ear. “Yes Master?”

“ _Ying, you must not let that intruder think he is welcome here.”_

“Yes.”

“ _Intimidate him, scare him off, try sparring with him, anything to get him to leave immediately.”_

“Yes.”

“ _Is everything under control?”_

“Everything is fine.”

“ _Good, I want him gone by tomorrow.”_

“Yes Master.”

There was a resounding beep as he hung up.

Ying sighed, still holding her phone to her ear. “Everything is not fucking fine.” She muttered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this is a little late! We're short-staffed at work at the moment so I was randomly called in a few times during the week - and I had exams at college so that was a little overwhelming. 
> 
> 1) Maybe you already noticed this but maybe not: the last scene in this chapter and the previous are the _same scene _(0-0) ..._  
>  2) This chapter is extremely long and I didn't want it to seem like I was dumping a load of exposition on you guys so I cut out the extension of the first scene and will be posting it in my collection of vignettes (also out on my account if you hadn't already seen!)  
> 3) Emotions were very hard to balance with this - I have a bad habit of making things angsty when they shouldn't be  
> 4) Icarus is from the greek myth where Icarus is given a pair of wings made out of feathers and wax - he flies too close to the sun and the wings melt and he falls. The saying of someone being an "Icarus" is basically saying that they take risks. Do with that little tidbit what you will ;)_
> 
> _  
> _On more of a sad note, my mum is filing for a divorce with my dad, which is great btw! I hate living here with him and the whole dysfunction of it has ruined a lot of my life. But now that the divorce will go through I'm my mum's only emotional support so it's all a bit stressful. On top of my flute exam coming up and my boss calling me in for extra hours I'm not sure on whether I'll always be meeting my chapter deadlines. So I may be a day or two late sometimes, but be patient! I'll always try and get something out! (also please don't worry about me I am seeing a therapist)_  
>  _
> 
> _  
> _Anyway, thank you for the lovely comments and kudos! :)_  
>  _


	9. With Yu Ting, it's complicated

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to preface this chapter by saying that with this particular chapter I took a HUGE amount of creative liberty. If there is anything I put in here that you don't agree with then you will be able to simply ignore it and enjoy the rest of the story. As I've said all along while writing this - Shadows is extremely self-indulgent for me, this chapter is a good example of that.
> 
> I apologise if anything here turns you off from the story.

“What are we gonna do about him?”

“Po?”

Po stopped in his tracks. He was on his way to the kitchen, having thought that the room was blessedly empty and he’d finally get the chance to eat something after the day of working at the Palace again. Though he didn’t expect to hear muttered voices in the low light flooding out the hallway.

“…not quite sure when.” Jia. That was Jia’s voice, with that Po could easily guess who else he was with.

“Shifu needs to tell us what’s going on.” Yu Ting muttered, and Po had the mental image of her fingers twisting through her dark hair. “We can’t… we can’t keep him forever.”

Po hit his head against the wall in frustration. His fate was sounding bleaker each day, and he still wasn’t allowed to contact his dad. Everything was going to shit. As much as he wanted to stay, the whole situation made him feel sick with worry over the possible outcomes. The conflict of his morals were pulling him in all sorts of complicated directions. The truth was what he told Shifu that night: he wanted to stay. Po hadn’t indulged the others in the life he left behind, but the prospect of leaving it was attractive to say the least. On the other hand, since he was not wanted by the man who ran it all then what was to become of him? What sort of life would he lead then? Po didn’t even know if it was possible to be sent back to his old life. Obviously they couldn’t kill him, but perhaps they had a way to get rid of him, send him away to -

“Oh I uh – I got a letter –“

Yu Ting’s sudden voice interrupted his train of thought.

“Your dad?”

Po perked up at that. He could have sworn Yu Ting didn’t speak of her family. As a matter of fact, _none_ of them did. It seemed to be an unsaid taboo amongst them, despite how close they were.

“It’s about – well, you know…”

“Oh, yeah… do you want me to…?”

“No it’s fine,” Yu Ting cleared her throat delicately. “it’s just the reminder of it that makes me a little… annoyed.”

Po knew he should’ve left, this wasn’t his conversation to listen to, it was not his place to eavesdrop.

“Do the others know?”

But the curiousity was too much, and he leant closer to listen.

“I wouldn’t bring it up with them, not now.”

 _Looks like they lied about no more secrets,_ Po thought bitterly.

“What does it say?”

There was a rustling of paper. “The usual, asking me how I’m getting on and stuff like that.”

“And?”

She sighed sadly. “There’s something about a cure… but I don’t want to read that part.”

A beat of silence followed. Then another, then another. The silence was extremely prolonged and for a moment Po wondered if they’d escaped the room somehow.

“I haven’t really kept up correspondence with my dad recently.” Yu Ting spoke up.

“Are you going to tell Po?” Jia asked. “You know, that you’re allowed to contact your dad.”

At this Po almost gasped. He hadn’t spoken to his dad since Monday, and this was Friday. It was starting to get more than just frustrating having this stupid restriction. He had thought, naively, that the others were estranged from their relatives due to the secrecy of their work, so he would have to follow the same route. But Yu Ting and Jia lied to him. It hurt a little. Po was starting to feel the edge dissipate between them bit by bit – though this one conversation seemed to build the wall again.

“…has nothing to do with him, he doesn’t need to know.”

Po had only caught the tail end of Yu Ting’s phrase, but it was enough for him to scowl and, out of impulse, crawl a little closer to the doorway for a view of the kitchen.

“Well obviously,” Po watched Jia put a comforting arm round Yu Ting’s shoulder. They were both sitting at the dining table. Incredibly close, Po noticed. Even through his anger he was still baffled by their behaviour. Did they ever mention if they were friends or not? “it’s your secret and we’re not telling him.” Po dared to crawl a little closer, wincing at the creaking floorboards.

“Yeah,” She muttered in agreement, resting her head on his shoulder in a familiar fashion. “I don’t mind keeping him in the dark for this.”

Gritting his teeth, Po allowed himself to sigh at the way they talked about him. He swore low under his breath, cursing his bad luck and also their behaviour towards him. They were fake, and no matter how much of a hypocrite he was to be saying that – it was true.

After a moment Jia suddenly released Yu Ting. She gave him a questioning look as he stood up and made his way to the sink. With only a view of his back and the evidence of an ending to their conversation, Po shuffled back to his original place next to the doorway, leaning against the wall. Closing his eyes, the thunderous thoughts raced through his mind, paranoia taking over from any previous mindset he was in. _Stupid stupid stupid,_ he was so stupid for thinking that they’d even accept him. For thinking that they had no more secrets, for thinking that they _mean_ it when they said that. The Five were such close friends, how could Po possibly even –

“Why are you eavesdropping, Po?” Came Jia’s sharp voice.

 _Jesus Christ._ Po’s heart dropped and he froze. He’d not been as quiet as he’d hoped.

He was about to make a weak excuse and run, but their conversation drifted through his head once again.

In a sudden rush of anger he stood up and rounded to face them in the doorway. “Because there are still so many secrets here!” He mentally kicked himself, why’d he have to raise his voice so much? But there was no going back. “You have kept me here for _days_! Telling me that I can’t leave and I can’t talk to my dad and I can’t know everything because ‘it’s complicated’!” He made mocking quotation marks at reciting Jia’s early words. “You guys can’t keep being jerks about everything with your stupid double standards!”

Jia seemed a little shocked at Po’s strong words. He put his hands out as if to weakly diffuse his anger. “Look, I get this hasn’t been the easiest situation but-“

Po snorted. “Understatement of the century.” He muttered darkly.

Jia’s eyes wandered round the room, desperately not meeting Po’s. “I know we’ve been secretive – I apologise – but this, this is _personal._ ” He gestured slightly towards Yu Ting, who was watching their exchange tiredly.

Po rolled his eyes so much it hurt. “Are you kidding me? _Everything_ is personal with you guys! It’s just a letter from her dad! Which, by the way, I didn’t know she was allowed to contact!”

“I don’t think you’d want to know,” Jia said coldly, crossing his arms. “and I don’t think Yu wants to tell you.”

“Try me.” Po spat.

Jia looked down at Yu Ting. “Don’t feel like you have to tell him.” He said softly.

“No I’ll tell him,” She assured him. “if he’s going to stay, it would be unfair if he didn’t know.”

Jia deflated, and sat down again. “Take a seat.” It all felt like Deja vu as Po drew up a chair and plopped himself down, still seething.

“I was born with a rare condition called MRKH,” She started, the most stoic he’d seen her. “which means I was born without a womb, and I can’t bear children.”

 _Oh._ That _was_ personal. “Oh.” Po felt like an awful person, he wanted to exit the room as fast as possible, but instead he kept talking. “Are you guys… uh…” He waved his hands around vaguely towards them, letting his actions speak louder.

Jia averted his eyes quickly and Yu Ting shook her head. “No, no we’re not together, we’re just friends.” She said with a slight forced chuckle. “If you hadn’t noticed already, we’re all pretty close here, so everyone is well aware.”

Po nodded slowly. “My _real_ problem is that I come from a long line of old nobility. My ancestors were emperors, at one point, and the family line has continued all these years, only to stop with me.” She looked down at her hands as her voice quietened to a murmur. “I would happily adopt, and probably will because I do want kids, but my dad will never be able to get his biological grandchildren, and the goal was to keep the tree growing for all eternity.”

“I’m sorry.” Was all he could say.

She heaved a sigh. “It’s alright, he got over it eventually. My grandfather, however, always instilled in me the belief that women were made to conceive.” She swallowed, as if repressing a memory. “It doesn’t bother me now, but when I never got my period everyone knew there was something wrong with me.”

“I have to say it, your grandfather is a dick.” Jia muttered darkly.

Yu Ting gave him an annoyed look. “I _know._ And I promise, it doesn’t bother me.”

Po swallowed, wanting to be anywhere but at the table with them. “I err – I’m sorry for eavesdropping on you.” He apologised uncomfortably, leaping up from his seat. “I’ve heard enough… I think I’m gonna head out-“ He pointed towards the door, already edging closer to it.

Yu Ting laughed in the way a big sister would. “Oh sorry! You don’t know many girls do you?” It sounded as if she pitied him. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable!”

“No I er – really I –“

“It’s _okay_ Po, I’m not angry at you.” She said sincerely.

“So – no more secrets?” He asked nervously, fiddling with his fingers.

Yu Ting chanced a glance at Jia next to her, who remained with his usual illegible expression. “Well… I can’t promise that,” She grimaced at him. “we all have our various secrets and it’s up to them whether they want to tell you or not.” 

Po nodded, feeling a small wave of guilt for his overreaction. “But I hope that’s cleared things up for you?” She carried on, smiling hopefully.

“Yes… yes – I – er –“ He stuttered helplessly. “thanks – I mean, thanks for clearing that up and everything.”

Po backed out of the kitchen as fast as he could, eager to get out of the awkward situation he got himself in. Glad that he hadn’t completely ruined his newfound relationship with Jia and Yu Ting but also unbelievably embarrassed over how stupid he acted, he stood in the hallway for a breather. It was turning dark, already becoming night and Po felt a yawn coming on. He was always tired after work, but the Palace was even more laborious than working in a kitchen, so sleep called to him earlier than it usually would. He rubbed his eyes and turned round, almost walking into Ying, who was descending the stairs.

He had to do a double take when he saw her.

She was wearing, what looked like, a loose-cut dress out of the same sort of black and grey plaid material he favoured to wear on a cold day. Her tights were ripped and she was holding a pair of laced boots in one hand. And in the other, her phone.

She pressed a finger to her lips as a way to quiet him and pointed to the kitchen, where Jia and Yu Ting were still talking. Tiptoeing down and coming more into the light, Po could see the dark makeup outlining her eyes. The only was he could describe her was edgy. But why? To his knowledge, he didn’t even think she’d be the type of person to own these sorts of clothes. Why was she even dressed up?

Ying pattered past him on the balls of her feet and grabbed a denim jacket to throw on. She opened the front door just a crack and slid herself through. Po stared at her in shock. What was she _doing_? As if to answer his question, she stuck her hand through the gap and made a beckoning gesture.

It was stupid, it was probably going to get him in trouble, and it was a bad idea, but Po followed her. Outside, he shut the door with a soft click. The air was warm and humid and the sun was only starting to get pulled down behind the clouds. Ying was lacing up her boots hurriedly, and Po watched her with confusion, unable to say anything out of pure fear. Once done, she took his arm and lead him further away from the house.

“Ying,” He started. “where – where are you going?”

“Out,” Was all she said. “are you coming?”

She gave him a questioning look, expressively innocent with her eyes lined in black. Po turned over the pros and cons in his mind. On one hand, Ying was _inviting_ him to join her, so this could be her way of getting to know him. On the other hand, it did suspiciously look like she was sneaking out, and he’d already got off on the wrong foot with Shifu, so to get caught out with her didn’t seem like a smart move.

“Sure.” The word left his mouth before he could stop it.

A ghost of a smile appeared. “Good.”

Ying took his arm again and pulled him in the direction of the forest he went to with Yu Ting and Jia the day before. Except she went the other way. Towards the city instead. They stumbled down a dirt path Po didn’t know existed, one that curved round the Thousand Steps and lead them right into the outskirts of the city. It was certainly a long walk, but less tedious than going down the steps and less aggravating during the night.

“Do you – do you usually go alone then?” Po asked, huffing to keep up with her.

“Sometimes,” She said. “but if I want to drink, then I convince Yu or Cong to come with me.”

“What about Fan Hai and Jia?” She seemed close with them, it was strange to him that she excluded them from her escapades.

“They don’t approve,” She sighed deeply and Po made a guess that she was rolling her eyes. “Fan is too protective and Jia thinks this is ‘unhealthy’.” She made large quotation marks in the air so he could see from behind her.

Po had to bite back an agreement with them. “Oh, is that why you were sneaking out?” He wanted to remain on good terms with her, so stayed neutral on the subject.

“Kind of, yeah – it’s not like they’d tell Shifu or anything, but I’m always paranoid that he’s watching somehow.”

“Shifu doesn’t know?!” Po was impressed, from what he knew of her, Ying didn’t have the personality to be a rebel. But, it seemed there was a lot he didn’t know about Ying. About all of them, really.

She stopped give him an incredulous look. “Shifu still thinks kung fu masters should remain celibate and he’s banned alcohol and swearing in the house,” Po had to wince, these guys were fully grown adults! Shifu seemed like a control freak. “he would kill me if he found this out.”

“But what do you do? Do you just sneak out? Or meet people or…?” 

“I go to any of the nightclubs I can find,” She said, as if it was nothing, and Po stared at her in worry. She rolled her eyes at his look. “I’m not _reckless_ , the first time I go I always take Cong or Yu with me, to make sure it’s safe.”

“That still kind of… doesn’t seem very – safe.” Po said slowly, gauging her reaction.

She held up her phone indignantly. “I have Yu staying up late for me, she’s on call if something goes wrong.”

“Has anything ever gone wrong?”

“No, I’m very responsible.”

Po scoffed. “You say, as you sneak out of the house to go to a nightclub.”

She laughed at him, sniggering behind her hand. “Okay shut up, this is only to make up to what I did to you.”

Po frowned. “I’m pretty sure it was _me_ who followed you…”

“I don’t mean that, I mean when I body-slammed you a few nights ago.”

“Ah well, that did hurt,” Po rubbed his back absentmindedly. “but I think I deserved it. You’ve probably noticed but I’m not very – ah – _smooth,_ with girls, or people in general.”

“It’s hard not to notice.” She said dryly. “But that’s not a bad thing, I can help you, if you want.”

“Nah it’s cool,” He waved her off, surprised at her kindness. “I actually want to stay single, funnily enough.”

She gave him a searching look he couldn’t decipher.

“I know I know, it sounds so weird, doesn’t it?”

“It doesn’t sound weird at all.” She said quietly, still watching him carefully.

“Well, it was weird at school,” Po wanted to stop himself from talking, but Ying was easy to talk to. She didn’t talk much herself so subsequently ended up being a good listener. “Weird when everyone started dating each other and I just… didn’t care.”

“That’s very normal.” She reinstated.

“I feel like it’s not… I don’t even know why I’m telling you this,” He started rambling, mouth out of control. “but Shifu really wants me gone so if I’m gonna tell anyone I might as well tell someone who I’m never gonna see again.”

Ying hummed in agreement, not sugar-coating the reality like the others did.

“But you’re not in a relationship, right? And neither are the others?” She shook her head in confirmation. “Exactly, so that makes me feel a little better that there are people my age who are still single.”

There was a beat of silence and Po’s anxious butterflies fluttered at his throat.

“This isn’t a way to – to get _rid_ of me… is it?”

Ying stopped in the middle of the street and locked eyes with him. “I don’t know, how much do you have to lose?”

“Are you interrogating me?”

“Answer the question.”

“Did Shifu put you up to this?”

She snorted cynically. “Since when do I do what Shifu wants me to?”

“But you hate me too, right?”

“I never said that.”

“You said it with your actions.”

She pinched him on his forearm, hard. “Don’t give me cheek.”

He rubbed his arm sourly. “I’m _not_ …”

In the limelight he saw her give a sinister smile. “You have nothing to lose,” She gestured to the dingy town around them. “otherwise you wouldn’t have come with me.”

“H – how did you…?” Po stuttered before scowling at her. “You know nothing about me, you have no idea.”

Holding up one finger, she smirked. “First rule of going undercover, don’t incriminate yourself.”

Closing his eyes in self-deprecation he realised that she was completely right. Was she always this infuriating? “Give me a break…”

“I’m an outlaw, keep up.”

On the end of her sentence, Ying grabbed his arm once again and lead him to an unsuspecting black door with a bodyguard standing in front. She flashed both their IDs with a smile. When did she get his ID? _What the hell?_ But, Po supposed, she was a spy, and he should expect nothing less from her. Wrapping her hand in a tight grip around his wrist, she walked into the club.

_

Jia could not believe Po had the nerve to eavesdrop like that. The guy had minimal tact, absolutely no regard for privacy and the overreaction of a –

“Just friends.”

 _With benefits,_ he had to stop himself from adding.

They were just friends, obviously, but there was a part of their relationship they kept strictly between the sheets. No one else knew. A complete secret.

Though Jia did find himself wishing it didn’t have to be that way.

But every time he made up his mind to talk to Yu about it, he would start to over-flow with self-doubt. A romantic relationship was… complicated. With their line of work, plus the current living situation (which he was sure would never change, they all enjoyed it far too much) and the fact that they were a group of friends, meant that pursuing something more would be difficult.

Yu definitely knew this. She wasn’t stupid. The few times he did try to start a conversation over the state of their relationship ended with his hands in her hair, her wandering lips and passing out in his bed. It was messy. Messy and… convoluted.

Hiding it was no easy feat. The walk of shame was thankfully only a few steps, but the floorboards creaked loudly of their mistakes, and too many times Jia had found himself leaping over the gap between their rooms to avoid this. Sometimes they had enough self-control to stop and make it look like the vacant room (whose room they went in always changed) had someone sleeping soundly. The problem arose the morning after, when Ying would inevitably get up first to make herself breakfast. If it was a working day, she’d knock on everyone’s doors (or sometimes crash together a wok and a frying pan, depending on her mood) to wake them up and ask what they want for breakfast. They’d managed to avoid this situation so far due to pure desperation of not getting caught. Jia honestly did not want to think of Ying’s reaction to finding him in Yu’s bed, she was only three years younger than him but he still saw her as that naïve teenager who approached him with a fake list. He did not want to scar her for life. Cong and Fan were a little easier to get by. They were oblivious as you could get, too immersed in each other to notice, and they’d only had one or two close calls involving those two.

The real problem was when (god forbid) Shifu would grace them with his presence. His hearing was immaculate, even for his age. Meaning that no matter how quiet they kept on their nightly escapades, there was probably some way he could hear them. And if he did hear them… well, they wouldn’t be alive to tell the tale. So far this situation had lasted for about seven months – not that he kept count.

He looked at her, admiring the long, silky hair forming a dark curtain around her frame. “You really didn’t have to tell him.” He said, after Po had left.

She rested her head in one hand, squishing up her cheek. That was cute. She was cute. “I felt I had to, you know?” That was something he always liked about her, the amount of empathy she had. “We’ve been so secretive about everything and it must be so confusing for him, the least I could do is let him know me a little better.”

He nodded along, not really listening to her.

“I mean, can you imagine? These random people who work _against_ the government hold you hostage, saying you can’t speak a single word about anything you learn, and you have to join them. How awful must that be.” She carried on, falling into her own pit of despair she tended to dig when feeling sorry for someone.

“Yu,” He started. “we should talk about… you know.” He trailed off, leaving her to pick up the pieces of his phrase.

Yu fixed him with one of her signature stares reserved for when she became mildly annoyed. “Not now Icarus.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Hypocrite” He commented dryly. “you haven’t exactly been subtle lately.”

“Are you complaining about the bruise again?”

“No!” Despite himself he smiled, able to find humour in their conversation. “I mean using the nickname publicly, even Cong caught onto it.”

“Icarus is hardly a hint.” She shrugged nonchalantly.

Jia sighed and used his own nickname for her. “You are impossible, Vamp.”

She laughed and reached forward to cup his chin and turn him towards her. “I’m impossible yet here we are.” Playfully running her thumb across his bottom lip she… “And why Vamp? I never asked you that.”

“Sharp teeth that you insist on using.” He grinned as her thumb felt his own.

“You never complain.” She quipped.

 _Another time,_ Jia thought. Another time they’d talk about it. Confrontation was always terrifying for him. Another time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) I will address the elephant in the room: I felt in this universe that no venom = infertility. My reasoning is that if you break down the concept of her not having venom (she grows fangs in the end, but in the short they placed a lot of importance on the venom rather than fangs) it's basically the fact that she's _missing_ something that she is biologically _supposed _to be able to do/have - and just by looking at her you don't notice that until she says anything.__
> 
> __2) I am well aware that when I first published this story I didn't tag Crane/Viper until about three chapters in. To be honest I wrote their scenes in this chapter when I wrote chapter two, but I wasn't sure if I really wanted to keep their subplot or not. So for I realised that there are people reading this who maybe didn't notice/see the relationship tag. I've tried to be really obvious with it in previous chapters and include little one-liners that hint towards a relationship so this isn't too much of a shock._ _
> 
> __3) I also realise that a friends-with-benefits relationship is such a weird thing to write... sue me, I'm not a romantic but I love the idea of this between them._ _
> 
> __4) I've written a side story for how Jia and Yu get themselves into this situation, and it's been hinted towards in chapter six where Jia starts talking about a mission they did then Yu cuts him off. Do with that what you will..._ _
> 
> __5) I know my take on Ying/modern Tigress is a bit odd. But I feel that in the modern day with access to technology and the outside world, she'd be more self-aware, less sheltered and more willing to go against Shifu. Again, creative liberty._ _
> 
> __6) I've realised that this story seems like it's moving very slow - I _promise_ that this chapter is honestly more of a way to easily inject my subplots and the next ones pick up steam. _ _
> 
> __Sorry that there wasn't much action here, but since the theme of this is so heavy, I couldn't feature other characters like I usually would._ _
> 
> __Feel free to tell me what you think! And thank you for the continued interest if you've stuck around :D_ _


	10. Doubt grips you tight my friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been two weeks... how are you guys hehe *guilty laugh*  
> Anyway, pay VERY close attention to this chapter, I drop a lot of hints and subtext, also the scene changes can et confusing.

Ying sat cross-legged on the floor of Fan’s bedroom, looking at their plan with a critical eye. It was almost flawless.

Almost.

She slid a slither of a newspaper cutting across the floor, closer to a hastily scribbled sticky note. It didn’t quite make sense. Not enough for her to form an effective plan anyway. The straggled pieces of string messily connecting together her theories and possible plans looked… alright. Just alright. And alright wasn’t enough to make the plan work.

The door opened behind her and Fan walked in with Cong. “What have you come up with?” He asked, holding an almond cookie in his hand.

She didn’t respond and simply stared at the mess.

Cong peered over, spilling the papers in shadow. “It looks alright.” He said cheerfully.

Sighing, Ying crumpled up one of her sticky notes. “It’s just _alright,_ ” She tossed the paper ball to one side. “and alright isn’t good enough.”

Cong set the jar he’d been carrying on Fan’s dresser and picked up the paper. “Yes it is,” He said gently, kneeling next to her and smoothing it out carefully. “’Possibly has knowledge about the Master’s Council’,” he read aloud, then looked at her with obvious impression. “it’s a good theory, keep it.”

Before she could stop him, he stuck it back to the newspaper clipping it was previously next to.

“You shouldn’t listen to Shifu,” Fan had lain on his bed in relaxation and reached forward to pat her on the shoulder. “if the plan is alright then alright is enough, and besides, we’re good at what we do.”

She made a sceptical face at his confidence. Sure, they’d achieved a lot, more than what the Council ever expected them to. They exceeded expectations, albeit very low ones. It was evident that Shifu did not have a high opinion of their skills, subsequently the Council didn’t demand much. Which, Ying supposed, was better than being held to an impossibly high standard. But still, the Furious Five had made some of the most monumental mistakes of the last couple centuries, their achievements could hold no pride in light of their stupidity.

Cong offered her the jar with a smile, as if sensing the stress taking place in her mind. “Don’t worry Ying, have a cookie.”

Ying took one but didn’t eat it, and instead held it delicately between her fingertips. “I feel like Shifu is worried about this mission.”

“Well we’ve never been to Malaysia so of course he’d be –“

“But not in that way,” She interrupted Cong quickly. “in that email he sent us he seemed _really_ worried – like he honestly didn’t know what he was talking about.”

Fan and Cong exchanged a look at this, though spoke no words to explain their behaviour. Ying almost glared at them, now she knew how it felt to be Po.

“We actually talked about this the other day,” Fan started, looking at Cong carefully. “about how Shifu had no idea who this guy is.”

Cong nodded along. “Yeah, he’s given us almost no information…”

“But still – “ She protested.

“Don’t beat yourself up about the plan, Ying, this isn’t an easy one.” Fan insisted, swiping a cookie and taking a bite.

After a moment of pause in which they stared down at her plan Cong spoke with a hint of bitterness. “You know I wish that Shifu was honest with us and said straight out: ‘Oh by the way, I have no idea who this guy is and no clues on how to find him, good luck!’” Cong make huge quotation marks in the air and put on a highly faked voice before slumping down with a scowl. “He honestly irritates me sometimes…”

Ying shrugged. “That’s just the way Shifu is, you know that.”

“Ying come on!” Cong started, taking on the tone he always did when they approached the sensitive topic. “You need to stop making excuses for him.”

Fan sighed loudly, then sat up and clapped his hands together with finality. “Enough of Shifu, I’ll get the other two in and show them your plan.”

The moment he left the room Cong turned to Ying with urgency.

“Has he been acting weird lately?”

She blinked, genuinely confused. “Who?”

“Fan! He’s been acting weird, don’t you think?”

She paused, wondering if he’d gone crazy. “…no?”

He slapped a hand to his forehead in disappointment. “You’re not telling me you don’t see it Ying.”

“I really don’t.”

“Dude you’re _blind_!”

She rolled her eyes and gave him a half-hearted scowl. “This is why I feel like a third wheel with you guys.”

He nudged her playfully. “But wouldn’t you rather be _our_ third wheel than Yu and Jia’s?”

“I’d rather not be a third wheel at all.”

Cong snickered and pointed downstairs. “Well you’ve got Po now, and very early this morning I heard two people stumble in through the front door.” He smirked as if finding out a huge secret of hers. “How was it last night?” He asked nonchalantly.

“It was fine.” She said curtly. “Po is better than you because he doesn’t flirt with anyone who comes our way.”

Cong dipped his head down and laughed. “I provide you with entertainment, Ying, don’t complain.”

The door slammed open. Fan and Yu ran in with a rush of excitement and planted themselves down on Fan’s bed, with Jia unwillingly following.

“Ooh I can’t _wait_ to go to Malaysia!” Yu said excitedly. “What’s the plan Ying?”

“Are we still taking the plane?” Jia butted in tiredly.

“Yes.” Ying answered with no sympathy.

“Ying has decided that we start with the jail, go under cover and see what we can find.” Fan said, pointing to one of the sticky notes she’d scribbled on.

“But it might not work…” She muttered self-deprecatingly.

“But it _will_ work.” Cong said firmly. “Either we use Jia as a distraction and sneak in or Fan goes undercover as a guard and finds us some records.”

“Why me?” Jia frowned at him. “Shouldn’t it be you since you’re the only one who has experience with the police?”

Cong grinned. “Okay, yes, I _obviously_ have the best street cred,” He said flamboyantly. “but you used to be a cleaner, so couldn’t you just do like a fake interview or something?”

Jia was a mixture of shock and annoyance. “Ugh, as _if_ I would _ever_ –“

“That’s it!” Ying gasped, a mental lightbulb pinging above her head.

Jia’s face fell and he looked at her with seriousness. “You’re not seriously going to make me do an interview?” He said slowly.

She said nothing and opened her laptop, typing furiously.

Fan kneeled next to her, looking at another sticky note. “Pudu prison, is it?”

She nodded, the name Shifu had emailed to them fresh in her mind. It took Google a while to find it, hidden as it was. The high-security prison had a simple email for contacting purposes, and nothing else. She clicked on it and entered one of the emails they used for going undercover.

_Sir/Mrs at Pudu prison,_

_I would like to apply for a job as a cleaner in the prison. I have approximately four years of experience as a cleaner in Chinese business centre and also at the Jade Palace Museum. I have recently moved to Kuala Lumpur and am looking for employment to fulfil my previous role. My resume is attached and it would be great if I could come for an interview next week on the 25 th._

_Regards, Chao Eng-ee_

Ying turned the laptop towards Jia, who read it with tiredness. “So, Mr Eng-ee will hopefully be having an interview with the employers of Pudu prison next week.” She said proudly. “And when he does have the interview, a member of the Furious Five will sneak in and look through the files of the prison and find information on the escaped killer.”

Cong, Fan and Yu congratulated her while Jia sighed loudly. “We could have at _least_ drawn straws…”

Their celebration was cut short by the opening of the front door.

* * *

It was already dark, the night intruding prematurely upon the last stretch of daylight. The Palace had closed on time, the doors shutting with finality at six in the evening as they always did. Everything was as it should be, with the orderly fashion adhered to he had no complaints. There was only a small worry that they weren’t prepared for their upcoming task. The hidden house had three lit windows, inviting the warmth left from the earth. Because warmth surrounded them. Inexplicably.

Shifu entered the house with a gruff call towards his students. “Everyone get down here!”

There was a sudden commotion as his students scrambled down the stairs haphazardly, with no sight of the intruder. At this he almost smiled, it seemed Ying had finally done something right.

“You all know that your plane leaves in the next four days,” He started, and they schooled their features to stone, ready to listen to his lecture. “I hope you have a plan.” He eyed Ying at this and she glanced at Fan Hai uncomfortably.

The oldest and the youngest of his students got along surprisingly well, so much that Shifu was always taken aback at their odd friendship. They were, on the surface, very different people. But he’d heard some of their conversations at times, and they often joked they had the same “energy”. Whatever that meant.

“She does,” Said Fan Hai confidently. “we’re all set master, you don’t have to worry.”

Shifu merely grunted, not being able to believe they were _truly_ ready.

“Master, do you have any other information about this killer?” Yu Ting piped up.

He refined from getting annoyed at her, had she not read the emails he sent? “No, Yu Ting, I sent you everything I know.”

“Right, okay…” She muttered, face falling slightly as if he’d shot her down with a hard reprimand.

It was not that Shifu meant to, he really didn’t, but he always seemed to put a damper on his students. No matter how much fun they were having or how good their moods were, his presence managed to squash down whatever light was in their souls and the warmth they inexplicably held. Yes he _could_ be less harsh, but that wasn’t much of an option. They needed him like this, whether they liked it or not.

He started to make his way to the kitchen, the others following him like sheep. “So, Ying,” He asked airily, taking the teapot and putting a spoonful of tea leaves in it. “what did you do to make that intruder leave?”

He poured the boiled water from the kettle and watched it start to turn the colour of the leaves, steeping slowly in the silence.

Why wasn’t she answering? “Ying?” He repeated, turning and looking at her.

Ying looked as if she’d seen a ghost. Her face depicted sudden realisation and, if he was correct, fear. This was unbeknownst to the others too, as they stared at her in varying states of disbelief, confusion and shock.

“… what?” Fan Hai finally spoke up.

“Yeah what – what is he talking about?” Wu Cong looked between Shifu and Ying with wide eyes.

“What?” Ying said nonchalantly.

“Ying?” Yu Ting frowned at her.

“What is he talking about?” Jia questioned.

Ying opened and closed her mouth a few times, no sound coming out. Shifu ran a hand over his face, great, _fantastic_ , this was exactly what he needed.

“I – I didn’t –“ Ying stuttered, looking younger than her years.

She said nothing else, and slowly started to step towards the exit, looking at the floor with big, panicked eyes.

Shifu may have been tough, but he knew tact. “Everyone else leave,” He barked. “Ying, take a seat.”

The others walked out, shooting glances at them over their shoulders, taking the warmth with them.

Shifu set the teapot and two cups on the table. If he was going to lecture Ying then the least he could do was give her a cup of jasmine. She sat down as if the chair was on fire, not looking at all like the hardened kung fu master she was supposed to be. He took a seat and pushed one of the cups towards her, she made no move to take it.

Hearing some scuffling and muted whispers, he sighed heavily. “I said leave!” He shouted once again towards the closed door.

Annoyed mutters and a few muffled curse words accompanied the footsteps echoing through the house. Shifu wasn’t sure on who exactly broke the no swearing rule but made a mental note to punish them later.

Once completely sure they were upstairs, he looked at Ying. “So I assume the intruder is still here.” He stated.

“Yes master.”

“I’m disappointed in you.”

“I know master.”

“Did you even _try_ to get rid of him?”

“Yes master.”

Shifu raised an eyebrow at her. “What did you do then?” He demanded, leaning back and crossing his arms over.

Ying didn’t say anything.

“For god’s sake Ying!” He snapped at her, the anger coming out in her disobedience.

She still didn’t say anything, staring at him passively without even flinching.

“You must do what I say! This intruder should _not_ be here and he should have been gone by now! I thought you of all people would want him gone first!” He couldn’t help yelling at her, it was her own fault anyway for not doing what she was supposed to.

“But _why_ do we need to get rid of him?” She retorted with as much ferocity as he had.

“Isn’t it obvious?!”

“No!” She stood up, pushing her chair away. “We can keep him! _Train_ him! He’s got nothing else!” Her sudden exclamation was like a slap in the face, he couldn’t remember the last time she’d spoken to him like that.

“How would you know if that’s true!” He yelled back, hitting his hand on the table for emphasis. “ _God_ Ying you can’t do this! You have to obey me!” He ran a hand through his greying hair, frustrated beyond belief.

“You’re always making me come up with my _own_ plans! Why is this any different?!” The bitterness in her tone only served to fuel Shifu’s already out of control anger.

“You’re too young to understand things like this!”

“I’m a spy! _This is what you trained me for_!”

Her final angry shout at him resonated round the room. In a fit of reckless rage, she swept her arm over the table, shattering their two cups and spilling the tea. Swiftly, she made to leave the room, but Shifu was quicker.

He ran towards her and grabbed her wrist with one hand, trying to pull her back. But he’d forgotten how strong she was.

“Get _off_ me!” She screamed, struggling against his grip.

“You’ve been far too disobedient!” He yelled back at her.

Ying finally managed to break free, kicking him in the stomach painfully and swearing as she did, then ran out the kitchen in desperation.

“YING!” Shifu roared after her retreating back. “YING GET BACK HERE!”

The front door closed with a slam that made the walls shake and Shifu stepped back in defeat, breathing hard. That had gone down far worse than he thought it would. The guilt hit him like a train as he sat back down, remembering what he’d said to her. Shifu never meant to be as harsh as he was, but it was for her own good.

* * *

On their run back up the stairs, they bumped into Po, who was standing in front of Jia’s bedroom door.

“Oh don’t tell me you’ve eavesdropped again.” Jia muttered at the look on Po’s face.

“You’re going away in four days?” He asked, ignoring Jia.

Yu stepped closer to him, a friendlier presence. “You knew that already though, the plane to Malaysia was the thing that gave us away in the first place.” She said gently, then bid a silent goodnight and went to her room, followed by Jia to his own.

Despite the other two going to bed, Po’s curiousity and need for answers was not quenched. “Yes but – but you guys hadn’t mentioned it at all so I thought it was… shelved.” Po said nervously, fiddling with the loose threads on his shirt.

“Well we _have_ been planning, we just hadn’t included you in that due to the whole secrecy thing.” Fan said, retreating into his own room.

“But what’s going to happen to me?!” Po asked desperately, following him.

Fan grimaced apologetically. “You’ll have to stay here, it’s too dangerous for you to come with us.”

“Do you know what Shifu will do to me?!” The worry was obvious in his voice.

Cong clapped a hand comfortingly to his shoulder. “You’ll be fine man, Shifu hasn’t actually done anything to you yet anyway and I bet there’s a reason for that.”

Po’s eyebrows furrowed and he sighed. “There’s nothing I can do about it then.” He said, sounding as if he was deflating.

Fan grimaced. “I promise, we’re rooting for you.”

The nod Po gave was hopeless and mournful, reflecting the dark atmosphere the house always had when Shifu came over.

“Exactly! Ying never got rid of you even when she was told to!” Cong said optimistically.

“Yeah, yeah… thanks guys.” It was the first genuine, grateful smile they’d ever seen from Po as he walked out. “I’m gonna head to bed, see you in the morning.”

The door closed with a quiet snap, and Cong turned back to Fan.

“I like him.” He said.

“He’s growing on me too.” Fan agreed, an air of fondness in his voice. He retreated to sit back on his bed and looked down at the array of strings and sticky notes.

Downstairs, an angry scream echoed through the house. And finally, a loud slam that could only belong to the front door. Fan and Cong had managed to block out most of the shouting, but this was something they couldn’t ignore.

Fan continued to stare at the sticky notes. “Do you think we should go after Ying?” He said passively.

Cong sat down next to him and shook his head. “No, she won’t go anywhere, so just give her some time and she’ll come back before the morning.”

“I don’t trust that she won’t do anything stupid.” Fan rolled his eyes like an older sibling.

“Oh shush, we’ve all done stupid shit recently, I’ve been waiting for her to have her moment anyway.”

Fan tutted. “Not helping.” He said through gritted teeth.

“ _Relax_ ,” Cong emphasised, impossibly calm. “she won’t do anything as bad as knocking someone out with a bo staff.”

In spite of the situation, Fan stifled a laugh at Cong. They’d all made a few good jokes of Cong’s stupidity with the staff, and he was sure it would become a running gag between them due to the sheer hilarity of it.

“Also what you said about Shifu keeping Po for a reason…”

“Oh I was just thinking out loud.” Cong said quickly, waving away Fan’s lingering question.

Fan looked at him carefully, sudden intent behind his words. “Yeah but you might be onto something here.”

“That Shifu has a legitimate reason to keep him?”

“Yes!”

“Well he was visiting Oogway…” Cong said thoughtfully. “do you think he has something to do with it?”

Fan blinked at him a few times before jumping up with bravado. “Yes! That’s it! It could only be Oogway!”

“Am I…” Cong started to grin. “… a secret genius?”

“Of _course_ you are mate!”

* * *

The moment Yu heard the door slam she knew it was Ying. Her and Shifu’s shouting match was pretty audible from her bedroom. And she still couldn’t quite believe it.

She told Jia she was going to bed, but took a leaf out of Ying’s book and crept down the stairs. Shifu was still in the kitchen, sipping tea, she assumed. The accompanying tell-tale sound of the front door opening made her wince as she edged herself out into the cold night air.

Yu didn’t quite know where Ying would be, but she had a niggling feeling she wouldn’t be hard to find. Though it probably wasn’t the best idea to go after her. If she went out then that surely meant she’d want to be left alone. Yu gritted her teeth, _this is the right thing to do, it’s the right thing to do._ The mantra did nothing as self-doubt overcame her.

Seeing the shape of a head in the greenery surrounding their house, the mantra quietened. She sat down next to Ying, not too close, but close enough for comfortable conversation.

“You could have told us, you know? About Shifu asking you to get rid of Po.” She said softly.

Ying sighed. “I – I guess I could have said something.”

“You can trust us Ying.”

“I know.” She sighed. “It’s just that you guys were warming up to him and I didn’t want to be a bitch and say I wanted to get rid of him.”

“But we would have understood! It’s Shifu, he’s harsh, we get that.” Yu said, a little firmer. “And by the sounds of it – I think you _want_ him around.”

Ying groaned and let her head fall into her hands. “God what is this, therapy?” The sarcastic comment did nothing to qualm the heavy tension.

“Ying.” Yu repeated.

“I don’t _know,_ ” she muttered through her fingers. “he’s got nothing else outside that job at his dad’s restaurant, no friends, no career, no future.” She rubbed her eyes harshly, suddenly seeming tired. “And we _can_ train him with enough time – but –“

Ying faltered, looking out into the distance. “But… what?” Yu prompted gently.

“Shifu will _ruin_ him.” She whispered, turning to Yu with desperation.

In all honesty, Yu didn’t know how to respond to that. It was unsaid knowledge between the five of them that Shifu was cruel, even if it was necessary. And it bothered them, it always did and she was sure it always would. Breaking from the confines of his rules was only an option if they left their jobs, left the system, and never spoke a word of it. Yu shuddered at the thought, the future was uncertain and it was unpleasant to dwell on it.

She slung her arm round Ying’s shoulder, pulling her close in the midst of their unspoken fate.

* * *

Within the next four days many sticky notes had gone to use and Fan’s bedroom floor was untouchable. Numerous very loose plans were made with the many possible “what ifs” of the situation and the outcomes. They were prepared. Slightly.

Shifu had not made another appearance since and no one mentioned the angry red ring around Ying’s wrist.

The Jade Palace had closed for its daily cleaning and restoration of artifacts, and the tourists gathered at the bottom of the Thousand steps, forlorn to have missed the viewing. Cong had put the usual sign up with great enjoyment, far too happy to not work and go on a dangerous mission. Even Po had helped out with the closing, cleaning the floors with Jia and locking up with Fan. Yu had been put in charge of fetching the spy gear that was otherwise confiscated and hidden away by Shifu (when they were younger they made a habit of playing around with the gadgets and since then Shifu didn’t trust them to not do anything stupid), packing them safely in a suitcase specifically designed to not show metal in the airport baggage scanners. Truth be told neither of them really understood how it worked, only that it had been used for years by the Master’s council, the previous generation of spies.

The days sped by and in the blink of an eye, they were standing in the hallway holding suitcases of their bare essentials and minimal hand luggage.

“Passports?”

“Yep.”

“Masks?”

“In the bag.”

“Ear-piece?”

“Yes.”

“Suit?”

“Over here.”

“Bandages, medicine, anti-bac?”

“Fan’s got them.”

“Okay, what idiot wrote gin on here?” Ying brandished the list to them, hand on her hip and frowning.

“Jia.” Cong said almost immediately.

“It was obviously Cong.” Jia rolled his eyes.

“Are we ready to go then?” Yu asked brightly.

“ _Ahem_.”

They turned round, and it was Po, standing on the stairs and looking more than lost.

“So you’re… actually leaving.” He said, almost numbly.

“Well, we have to,” Yu walked closer to him, trying to comfort him in any way. “we’ve had this planned for a while now.”

Po nodded slowly. “Yeah, the plane to Malaysia…” he admitted, and seemed a little guilty at their faces. “I just had to piece it together really, the fact that there were only five employees, you were going to Malaysia, it was all secretive and ‘complicated’ and I saw Ying doing kung fu.” At the word ‘complicated’ he made quotation marks in the air, still apparently put off by their use of the word.

After a moment of tense silence Jia broke it with a mutter. “We really are terrible spies…”

“Are you kidding me? You guys are the Furious Five!” Po exclaimed, reverting back to the fanboy they met the week before. “The world is _dying_ to know who you are! And I don’t care what Shifu says, I think you guys are seriously awesome.”

They couldn’t help but grin.

“Hey, thanks Po.” Cong clapped him on the shoulder in a brotherly manner.

“Yeah this has been tough for you, but you’ve been pretty good with it.” Fan gave him a friendly smile. “You took Cong’s terrible apology like a bro as well!”

“My apology was _not_ –“ Cong started.

“I don’t even mind!” Po said excitedly. “Your fighting with the bo staff was so cool! I don’t care I got knocked out!”

Jia frowned, but smiled in spite of himself. “You definitely took it better than I would have.”

“Yeah you probably would have whined all week –“ Cong jabbed at him.

“I do not _whine_ – !” Jia started to protest.

“OKAY,” Ying interrupted them loudly, opening the front door. “let’s finish up our goodbyes and then we really have to leave.”

“But what do I do when you’re gone?!” Po asked worriedly.

“I guess wait until Shifu inevitably storms in here,” Ying shrugged. “But before then, just do what you want, the house is yours.”

“We trust you not to do anything with it.” Yu chimed in, but still looking at him pointedly.

Jia picked up his suitcase with ease and faced him with finality. “So Po, I guess this is goodbye.” he said, albeit a little awkwardly.

“…forever?”

Jia took a moment of thought, then spoke cleanly. “I hope not.”

“I hope not too.” Po started to smile. “Goodbye Jia.”

“Goodbye Po.” Jia tipped his grey baseball hat to him, and went out the open door with his suitcase.

Cong was next. “Have a good one!” He said cheerily.

“Yeah, you too.”

He gave a friendly wave and stepped out with his suitcase.

“You’re a good guy Po, it was nice knowing you.” Fan patted him on the shoulder.

“Thanks for the er – acupuncture.”

Fan took his suitcase out the door. “Anytime!” He called back.

“Bye sweetie, and don’t worry, you’ll be fine.” Yu said, and embraced him in a hug.

It was brief, and Po tensed slightly without any warning, but she didn’t regret giving it. Taking her suitcase she followed the others.

Ying, who’d been holding the door open for them, started to close it, only to leave it ajar enough for her to poke her head through.

“Goodbye Po, this won’t be our last meeting, I guarantee it.”

He blinked owlishly at her. “How are you so sure?”

“I have my ways.”

“Like what?”

“Like me wanting you to stay.”

He went silent for a moment until a soft _oh_ fell from his lips.

She smiled and winked. “See you in a week.”

Then shut the door, and walked with the others towards the car.

* * *

Zheng, in fact, did _not_ give him good news.

He disturbed his meditation to give him the very news that almost gave him a heart attack. Shifu could feel his left eye twitching as Zheng stammered through the terrible bad news. Fear he’d never admit that gripped his soul and the very peace he’d tried so hard to obtain. The bad news proved the possibility to be true, the very thing he feared the most happening. But he had no time to dwell or gather himself, the fate of his students walked dangerously on a tightrope of pure luck. Their training couldn’t save them, he never taught them everything.

That was what caused him to march back to the house. To stop them, put an end to this madness once and for all. Because he knew if they left, they’d be walking to their deaths.

His anxious mind did nothing to quell his fear and he was sure this one minute aged him by ten years. Various horrific situations played out in his head like a gory montage of death and destruction, and he had to try hard not to let his lungs stop working.

His hands were shaking so much he could hardly unlock the front door, and finally slammed it open with a few choice swear words and threw aside the keys, relishing in relief of letting some anger out. It was almost seven at night, so he headed straight upstairs to their rooms.

“Students! There is something I must tell you!” The butterflies in his stomach meant his voice came out a little harsher than intended. “The mission is cancelled!”

Except, there was no response. Not even movement of footsteps. Only the light breeze wafting against the walls of the house.

He knocked on Fan Hai’s door, the closest one.

No response.

The desperation only grew, and Shifu knocked on the next one.

Again, no response.

He kicked the rest open and almost pulled his hair out when they were all empty. Where were they?!

“Ying?! Jia?!” He called out their names, but still there was nothing.

 _Inner peace –_ oh what was he doing? The mantra couldn’t help him, his inner peace was thwarted the moment he realised what Oogway had seen for years.

Running down the stairs so fast he almost tripped, he saw a glimmer of light. It came from the kitchen. He rushed in as fast as humanly possible, emitting a shocked sound from the person sitting there.

“Where are they?! The Five!” Shifu almost shouted, he tried not to raise his voice, but the worry, the worry was too much.

Po gripped at the table in vain. “I – I –“ He stammered, looking scared out of his mind.

Shifu stepped closer to him. “Where are my students!”

“They… they left.” Po said in a small voice. “For Malaysia.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The break I took was pretty necessary since I had uni applications and exams so that was all incredibly time-consuming. 
> 
> 1) The last scene in this chapter is a follow-on to the second-to-last scene in chapter 7, the eagle-eyed of you probably would have caught it.  
> 2) When I wrote the email to the prison I copy and pasted some of my emails to various employers haha. And I'm also aware that one does not ask for an interview date, but let's pretend that's how it works here, k?   
> 3) I like the idea of Cong, Ying and Fan being a little devil trio haha  
> 4) I know I've made Shifu very morally grey here, moreso than he is in canon, but this story is definitely a darker take on each of the characters. I'd like to know what you think of the direction I've taken him in, especially his inner-monologue :)  
> 5) You may have noticed that I choose certain themes to work with in each chapter. The theme for this one is "doubt", which is something I think we can all relate to :D  
> 6) This chapter didn't have as much random comedy moments as I'd usually put in, but I wrote it in this way simply to get the plot moving.
> 
> Alright! I'm having to prepare a portfolio for my uni applications, so I'm spending most of my time in college staring at a macintosh computer wanting to cry... and while I really do try and work towards a schedule, I just don't have the time to get updates out. And believe me, I've calculated when I'll be able to finish this fic if I stick to schedule and so far it's looking like a long fic haha. But don't worry! I would never abandon this! If there's a wait between an update just know that I am furiously typing away somewhere and it will get out soon :) if you have any questions/concerns/need writing updates then feel free to leave a comment or message me on tumblr (same name!). 
> 
> That being said, thank you for your patience and thank you for 60 kudos!!!


	11. Important please read!

I really, really hate to be the author that does these things... but I will have to go on a temporary hiatus from now until the end of February, maybe March, depending on how things are. As of writing this it is the 15th of January, so hopefully the hiatus should only last a month. 

I am 18 and as I reside in England we are in our THIRD lockdown (honestly this is getting ridiculous...) the government have cancelled the national exams (A levels) but put in place a load of stress, paranoia and an extreme workload from my teachers. I have an assignment for coursework due and two essays every single week that count towards my final grades, grades that may or may not get me into uni. I am also having to write music for my portfolio (something musicians know can't be rushed) for uni that is due in February. I also have a pending flute exam, piano exam and dance exam. 

So, yes. I am very busy. I'm currently going to bed at 2am and getting up at 8 just to get everything done, yet I'm still missing deadlines. I'm so incredibly tired right now and it's not healthy for me to try and carve out time to write even though I want to. 

That being said, I just wanted to let everyone know that I have notand will not abandon this story. I've written ahead and have plans for the last chapter (which I'm currently guessing will top around 20) so stick around. I'll be deleting this author's note when I finally do get around to posting chapter 11. 

Thanks for your patience with me and sorry I had to do this!

\- Huff 


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